Grocery shop turns to horror as house burns

Tauranga Fire Investigator Bill Rackham at the scene of the fire on Waihi Road. Photo/Andrew Warner

A Waihi Rd woman unwittingly shopping for groceries ditched the trolley and rushed home when she got the call her house was on fire.

The fire was one of two this week which fire authorities believe a laptop and heater were respectively to blame.

Fire crews were called to a house on Waihi Rd about 4.55pm on Tuesday to find the house fully involved. The house was empty at the time but a boarder was watching movies in a sleepout and noticed the power go out, by which time a neighbour had alerted the fire service.

About 12 hours later fire crews were called to another house on Greerton Rd, which was also fully involved.

Neither of the houses had working smoke alarms and fire investigators say initial investigations show electrical appliances - laptops and heaters - caused the fires.

Waihi Rd resident Shelly Sellars said she was at the supermarket with her 8-year-old daughter Georgia, when her boarder called to say the house was on fire.

She told the Bay of Plenty Times she had only been out for about 15 minutes, but ditched her trolley at the supermarket and rushed home.

Ms Sellars said she was in a panic because it was close to dinner time and her daughter had type 1 diabetes and needed her insulin.

"Her insulin and testing kit were all inside the burning house. Luckily a St John ambulance was at the scene of the fire so Georgia was able to get her blood glucose level checked and was due for her insulin."

Georgia was then taken to a nearby medical centre to get insulin.

Assessing the damage yesterday, Ms Sellars said her house was unsalvageable.

"Not a lot can be saved. I will try take my couch and give it a good clean, and the TV is fine."

Ms Sellars and her daughter are now staying with Ms Sellars' parents in Greerton.

Meanwhile, Greerton Rd resident Helen Godfrey was getting ready to head to work about 3am yesterday when she saw her neighbour's house on fire.

Ms Godfrey said she ran to the fence and yelled "fire, fire, fire, get out".

However the man who lives at the house was not home when the fire started

"It was horrible, being up at 3am. Your whole community is asleep and there is nothing you can do," Ms Godfrey said.

Tauranga fire investigator Bill Rackham said the Waihi Rd house fire started in the bedroom and he believed it was caused from two over-heated laptops sitting on the bed.

The house had smoke alarms but Mr Rackham said the batteries were not working.

Mr Rackham said the Greerton Rd fire was caused by a heater which was too close to the couch.

He said the heater was on a timer, and when it clicked on, it was too close to the couch and caught fire.

Mr Rackham urged people to check their smoke alarms.