Blaze destroys family home

A Tauranga family narrowly escaped being trapped in a blaze at their home in Gate Pa yesterday, when a fire started in a back bedroom.
Mavae Nimo, Ofa Latu and their young son Mavae, 2, were in the lounge with Ofa's uncle Fate at 1.30pm, when Mr Nimo got up to get a glass of water, and smelled and saw smoke.
He and Fate went to investigate and after discovering fire in a spare bedroom, attempted to put it out with a bucket and pot of water.
They threw the water against a wall and in a cupboard.
Meanwhile, a pregnant Ms Latu rushed outside the Faulkner St home with her son and called emergency services, while yelling at the two men to get outside.
Later, while watching Tauranga and Greerton firefighters at work, she said she did not know what could have caused the fire.
The family had lived in the home for a year and did not have insurance.
They lost beds, clothes and other personal items, and are now staying with a local family from their Tongan church.
It is the second fire to have hit the Tongan community in the past five months.
In February, fire destroyed the home of a Tauranga church minister in Gate Pa. The home doubled as a Tongan community house.
Mr Nimo said he was "very shocked" by the fire.
"Fire is very fast. It looked like petrol had been there [the speed was that quick]."
Tauranga Fire Service acting senior station officer Nigel Liddicoat said the cause of the fire was being investigated.
It began in the back bedroom, and the heat set fire to the garage.
The garage was extensively fire damaged, and the rest of the house was badly smoke and heat damaged.
One fire crew worked on the house, and another on the garage, bringing the flames under control in 10 minutes.
The rented home did not appear to have working fire alarms and Mr Liddicoat said as a result, there were "a few lessons to be learnt".
The first was that people should not try to put out the fire themselves before calling 111, and the second was that all homes should have working smoke alarms.
Several windows in the home were cracked, not from fire, but from heat alone.
"Even though the place was occupied, the speed at which the fire has developed has been [intense]," he said.
Wind meant the fire had "burned freely" with good oxygen supply.
Inside, a full cup of coffee sat on the coffee table and playing cards were laid out on the dining table.
Photos on walls were charred with smoke. The hallway was completely blackened.
"If the child was down there and the parent had gone down to get him, we could have been looking at two fatalities," Mr Liddicoat said.
Neighbours rallied around the distressed Nimo family, who watched on from the side of the road, before being helped by St John Ambulance.
Bonnie Williams, who lives  opposite the family, said she was pulling out of her driveway to go to work when she saw Ms Latu run out of the house.
"She ran out the front door with the wee one and I saw black smoke come out the door with her. I thought 'Man, that doesn't look too good'. I jumped out of the car, grabbed [her son], while she used her phone."
Ms Williams said Ms Latu threw up from what she suspected was smoke inhalation.

Another witness, Nevelle Horton, lives in the same street and said  he saw fire coming out the garage.
"All I thought was 'I hope no one's in there'."
Also on the scene was Niki Fawcett, who lived in the house for four and a half years with her family of five, but moved out a year ago.
She received a handful of text messages from friends to tell her her "old house" was on fire.
"It's gutting. It's a really nice house," she said.
Landlords Cheryl and Rowland de Bruin said insurance assessors would today view the house, which they had owned for five years.
Mrs de Bruin said when Mr Nimo and Ms Latu moved in, there were working smoke alarms in the lounge and dining area, but not the back bedroom where the fire started.
"There's no finger pointing.
"They are hard-working, law-abiding, church-going citizens. It's a real shame.
"I feel so sorry for the tenants," Mrs de Bruin said.