“The occupant was in the kitchen cooking. We could see him, our kitchen looks into his kitchen,” said Amy Jeffrey, who was home with her mother and her two young children when they heard banging and yelling and looked out as the flames took hold.
“I ran over and screamed at him to get out, but he was worried about his dog and wanted to go back in.
“Then I saw the dog was trapped inside - I smashed a window to let the dog out then I just ran, the whole place just went straight up. I haven’t seen the dog since.”
The fence between the properties was also on fire.
Amy’s daughter Leah Thomas, 8, saw the fire start and heard shouting. She told her brother Cory, 4, they had to get out of their house and she took him outside.
“I met our neighbour coming to get us, and I looked up and the flames were up to the clouds. I could see bricks falling. I was so scared.”
More neighbours rallied. One called the fire brigade: “They were here in just minutes, they were amazing. I couldn’t believe how fast the fire spread, it went from a fire to a full-on emergency in a minute.”
Her partner turned a hose on the blazing fence between the Kainga Ora flat and the Jeffrey house.
Another neighbour looked after the children and someone else brought cups of tea to the shocked Gaisford Tce residents who gathered.
“We’re a tight community here - we look after each other,” one resident said. “We hope [the occupant] is going to be okay.”
The occupant of the adjoining flat was left standing on the footpath, his cat in a cage, as people scrambled to find him somewhere to stay overnight.
He said the brick wall that separated the two flats had buckled from the heat of the fire that raced through his neighbour’s flat “in minutes”.
Emergency services told him he couldn’t go back in - not even to grab a sleeping bag, his home was too unstable. He was left with what he was wearing, and his cat. He says he didn’t even get to finish the coffee he was drinking when people banged on his door and yelled at him to get out.
“I wanted to finish my coffee but it seemed urgent so I went out - then I saw the fire.”
A fire investigator has attended the scene but the cause has yet to be determined. The occupant’s dog has been found safe and been checked by vets.
* An earlier version of this story said Hawke’s Bay Rescue Helicopter Trust took one person to Wellington Hospital based on information from St John. Hawke’s Bay Rescue Helicopter Trust and Hawke’s Bay Hospital confirmed the man was taken to Hawke’s Bay Hospital.
