Neighbour's actions saves Bay View home from scrub fire

The Allen family saved their neighbour's house from being caught in a scrub fire in Bay View yesterday. Photo / Supplied

The Allen family may be the perfect neighbours, after they saved the house next-door from an out-of-control scrub fire.

Shane and Ali Allen were about to have lunch with their teenage sons when they noticed smoke coming from their neighbour's address on Kaimata Rd about 1pm yesterday.

They assumed their neighbour was burning rubbish.

"We got home and saw a plume of smoke," Mr Allen said.

"We thought, 'that's a big fire Jeremy's got going' but something wasn't quite right.

"Big flames started rearing up in the trees and we knew something was wrong. It got bigger and bigger."

Ms Allen and her sons went to their neighbour's house to investigate. She said it was apparent her neighbour wasn't home and the fire was getting out of control.

"There were flames engulfing this tree by the house. No one was there and the fire was out of hand - it was quite scary to be honest."

Ms Allen and her sons used buckets to transport water from a swimming pool on the property in an attempt to damp down the area between the house and the blaze. They also tried using a hose.

"It was no use. I said to the boys, 'get out of there'."

Ms Allen called the Fire Service, which was quickly on the scene.

"It took the [fire] brigade 10 minutes to get here, but it felt a lifetime."

Napier Fire Brigade senior station officer Mark McGill said it was fortunate the Allen family noticed the fire.

"When we got there, it [the fire] was just impinging on some firewood by the house."

Up to 1.2ha of scrub was alight and it took three fire crews about an hour to extinguish the fire.

"It if had been longer it might have been a lot worse . . . It's lucky they [the Allen family] spotted it."

Mr McGill said the cause of the fire had not yet been identified and it was still under investigation.