A 100-year-old Hokianga house was burned to the ground in one of three serious fires that ensured Northland firefighters had a busy Saturday.
A dwelling at Kaimaumau was also destroyed by fire, while Dargaville firefighters attending a blaze near Kai Iwi Lakes found the ground beneath them burning.
Kaikohe deputy fire chief Loren Thomas said all that remained of the old four-bedroom Mangatawa Rd home in remote Hokianga was an adjoining garage.
He said the fire started at about 4.15pm on Saturday in a bedroom of the house which had been re-wired in the past 20 years. A woman living in the house had been visiting neighbours when she noticed flames leaping out of a bedroom window.
She quickly alerted those inside, and called for help.
Mr Thomas said the house's owner, aged in his early 60s, had been born and raised in the home.
A child had been sleeping in the lounge, and a man and two children who had been sleeping in the garage had all escaped the burning house.
It had taken fire fighters about 30 minutes to reach the house and over two hours to put out the blaze.
Dargaville Fire Brigade faced several obstacles in putting out a fire in difficult country near Kai Iwi Lakes at about 3.20pm on Saturday.
Dargaville fire chief Michael King said their job was made harder by the many underground caves and the fact that the peat-like earth was itself burning.
"It was quite dangerous because there were `tomos' ... one fire fighter fell in and sprained his foot," he said.
A helicopter with monsoon bucket, a fire engine from Te Kopuru and two from Dargaville took about three hours to extinguish the blaze.
Meanwhile, Kaitaia CIB are investigating a suspicious fire that destroyed a converted shed at Kaimaumau, about 30km north of Kaitaia.
Kaitaia Police constable Ali Holdaway said the dwelling was in a reasonably remote area, and had been occupied until quite recently.
It took over an hour and a half for Kaitaia firefighters to to put out the fire.
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