Fires badly damage Napier homes

Two homes have been badly damaged in separate fires within 20 hours in Napier.

The first was in the rear flat of a house in Ahuriri early on Sunday night and the second just after noon in Onekawa yesterday.

The Fire Service was called to a house on the corner of Waghorne and Raglan Sts, Ahuriri, at 5.42pm on Sunday.

Napier station officer Jamie Nicholl said a rear flat was "well involved" in flames when the first of three appliances arrived.

With no one in the flat, the firefighters concentrated first on successfully preventing the fire spreading to the front of the house.

A woman and two children fled a house in Constable Cres, Onekawa, as fire was reported yesterday at 12.09pm.

Mr Nicholl said the fire gutted the kitchen and lounge but closed doors prevented the home from being destroyed.

At least four homes have been badly damaged in fires in Napier and Hastings over the past fortnight.

Others were on the afternoon of July 24 in a house in Charles St, Westshore, followed by a kitchen fire the next day in a house in Sussex St, in Mayfair, Hastings.