The bottom two floors have been completely destroyed with some damage to the apartment above. Photo / Hayden Woodward
The bottom two floors have been completely destroyed with some damage to the apartment above. Photo / Hayden Woodward
An Auckland resident has described the terror of seeing flames melting his neighbour's apartment and destroying everything in its path.
Wayne Bridge-Smith, 65, was lying in bed in his Freeman's Bay apartment early this morning when he started to hear glass smashing through the wall that separated him from hisnext door neighbour's two-storey apartment.
"I opened my curtain and could see flames three stories high up to the roof, my god ... then it just erupted and the flames were about three and half metres out in the garden and up to the apartment above.
"The apartment above is completely melted, everything is just gone."
The blaze at the Hayden St four-storey Freeman's Bay apartment building broke out before 5.58am, when emergency services were called.
"The fire department arrived so fast, my goodness they are fantastic guys. I don't know how they go in, they just burst in. Extraordinary guys," Bridge-Smith said.
Fire crews were able to control the fire within minutes of getting to the scene. Photo / Hayden Woodward
Within minutes of arriving at the scene, fire crews were able to take control of the fire.
"They were incredibly fast. The neighbours all had their fire hoses out to trying to contain it."
