'Suspicious fire' destroys house bus, owner lucky to be alive

Police say the house bus fire in Mangakura Rd in Poroti that occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning "is being treated as suspicious". Photo / Supplied

A Northland man who dashed through the fiery doorway of his house bus as it was engulfed in flames says he is lucky to be alive.

Police are investigating a suspicious fire that destroyed a house bus in Poroti on Saturday morning.

Richard Banks was asleep in his house bus on Mangakura Rd in Poroti when he woke to a bright light at about 1am. He went to switch on a light to take a better look, but there was no power.

"I turned around and there was a big orange ball outside my bus - by my doorway to get out."

As the large flames hovered around the bus' only exit, he threw a blanket over his naked body and ran for his life.

"When you just wake up like that - your first reaction is where's the doorway? That's the first thing you will do."

Banks Joked he had kryptonite on that night as he managed to get through the door where the large flames were hovering unhurt.

"Cats have nine lives and I've had more."

He ran to his neighbours, who called 111.

But by the time the fire service had arrived all the was left was a blackened shell of his home.

The entire house bus was burnt to the ground within 10 to 15 minutes and Banks said if he hadn't woken to the light he would have been dead.

Banks' house bus was parked near the cemetery where his mother was buried and he believes she was watching over him.

"Definitely she was telling me to get up. I was close to my mother."

Banks believed the fire was deliberately lit and is waiting for the outcome of the police investigation.

"It could have been a homicide."

The fire took everything from him - his house, his transport, bank cards - even his underwear and he did not know how he would find the money to replace them.

A police media spokesperson said police and a fire investigator attended the scene of a fire Mangakura Rd in Poroti that occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning.

"At this stage the cause of the fire is yet to be determined, however it is being treated as suspicious."

Banks' brother Earl Edwards told the Herald they were pretty bloody angry about what had happened.

""It is pretty drastic. It is a pretty over-the-top thing to do. Lucky he got out otherwise you would be investigating a homicide I guess," Edwards said.

"Whatever anybody does - no one deserves to die over anything."

Banks' family is appealing for anyone with information about what happened to come forward.