Shed, boat, car fire sparks multi-plug warning

Cheap multi-plug boxes should be replaced every five years, a fire investigator says. Photo / NZME

A faulty multi-plug box has been identified as the likely cause of a fire that destroyed a shed, a boat and a car at Ōhaeawai.

Ōkaihau Fire Brigade station officer Ben Scott said the roughly 7m by 7m shed was completely destroyed in the blaze, along with a trailer boat stored inside and a nearby car.

Kaikohe and Kerikeri brigades also responded to the fire at a State Highway 1 property about 12.45pm on Saturday.

Fire investigator Craig Bain said the likely cause was a fault in a multi-plug box.

He advised Northlanders using inexpensive multi-plug boxes, also called powerboards, to replace them every five years.

The lead should be cut off before the box was thrown away to prevent it from being used again.

Boxes should also be replaced if plugs were loose and no longer fitted snugly.

''If it's too easy to plug in, then it risks becoming faulty,'' Bain said.

Overloading was not the cause in this case because only two sockets were in use.

However, overloading a powerboard by plugging in too many appliances at once was also a fire risk to be wary of.

The Ōhaeawai blaze was only of many for Northland firefighters during the weekend.

In the Far North alone they were called to three crashes — one of them, in Broadwood, resulting in serious injuries — involving cars rolling. Alcohol was thought to be a factor in at least some of those incidents.

Other callouts were related to people lighting fires despite a total fire ban in place across Northland since March 11.