After a fire destroyed a Whangarei home, friends and family spent the morning shovelling through ashes to save what was left.
Jesse Browning received a call about 1.15am yesterday to say his mother's house, just around the corner from his, was on fire.
"I came over and there were flames coming out and it was full of smoke," Mr Browning said.
"Mum's gutted. It's a whole 60 years of stuff. My older brother passed away around five or six years ago and all his photos were in there, we're lucky heaps of people had photos of him. I've got some at my place."
Seven units from the Ngunguru Fire Brigade and Whangarei Fire Station rushed to the house on Ngunguru Rd where crews spent about four hours containing the fire, on the corner of Kopipi Cres.