A fire that damaged a Putiki Dr house while its occupants were out is not thought to be suspicious.
Fire and Emergency Whanganui crews were called to the Putiki home, near the intersection with Ngatarua Rd, just before midday on Tuesday, June 26.
Senior station officer Aaron Summerhays said the house had working smoke alarms that could be heard outside the property and a neighbour called emergency services.
"The damage was confined to two rooms at the rear of the house," Summerhays said.
"The initial concern was that the fire had got into the roof. It had travelled partly through there so we had to remove some parts of the roofing iron to extinguish it."
At one stage four fire trucks and a water tanker were at the scene and the road between Putiki and Durie Hill, which is part of State Highway 4, was closed for a time.
Summerhays said a fire investigator was determining the cause of the fire but it was not considered suspicious.