Wairoa: House fire in a near 100-year-old Marine Parade villa treated as suspicious

A Marine Parade, Wairoa, home engulfed in flames on Friday morning.

Firefighters sent to battle an early morning fire in a near-century old timber villa in Wairoa struggled to get through padlocked gates to fight it.

Wairoa deputy chief fire officer Te Aroha Cook said 23 firefighters battled the blaze on Marine Parade at 4.26am on Friday. Five fire trucks from Wairoa, Nuhaka, Manutuke, and Napier were called.

Cook said the cause of the fire was undetermined, but authorities were treating it as suspicious.

She said firefighters had been in touch with the shocked family that owned the house.

A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said the house was fully alight when crews arrived and firefighters were still working on the site at 8.40am.

Police managed traffic at the scene.

Cook said the home was a 1920s to 1930s wooden villa with four or five bedrooms - “a large old home”.

She said the building was unoccupied, as the home was due to be renovated.

Padlocked gates made it difficult to gain entry to the property, she said.

Cook said the fire was “hot and fast-moving” and burned through the native timber with ease.

“A large majority of the house had flames and the fire had already got to the point where it had blown out windows.”