Neighbours say a woman was staying in a sleepout at a South Auckland property where a person has been found dead.
Emergency services were called to a property on fire on Tamaki Ave, Ōtāhuhu, about 9pm last night.
One person was found dead inside a shed, which was understood to have been used as a sleepout.
Police are now working to establish what caused the fatal blaze.
Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Hayward, of Counties Manukau West CIB, said police and firefighters attended the incident, and an investigation had since begun.
“Police are working to establish what has occurred and will remain on scene.”
In an update this afternoon, he said a scene examination was carried out today alongside a fire investigator.
“We are continuing to work through our formal identification procedures, with a post-mortem examination also set to take place tomorrow.
“Given these inquiries remain in the early stages, we are continuing to treat the circumstances as unexplained.”
Fire and Emergency assistant commander Chris Delfos said the shed appeared to be a sleepout.
“Crews arrived and were faced with a well-involved, medium-sized shed,” he said outside the burned Tamaki Ave property.
“We did not have any indication that there were persons trapped in the building, and while the crews were extinguishing the fire, they unfortunately found the deceased.”
He urged people to check their smoke alarms and make sure they had an escape plan “so these sort of things don’t happen”.
Next-door neighbour Ravin, 48, said he saw flames burning about 4m high at the back of the house.
“I looked out of the window and saw flames really shooting up.”
He said the homeowner had lost her husband late last year. Another woman acting as her helper lived in the sleepout.
“I knew the lady personally, the owner. And the husband as well. I only saw the owner a few times, the lady.
“I came to find out that there was another lady living in the sleepout. She was like an assistant or helper to the owners.
“Seems like it was the assistant that was in the sleepout because she was the one who was around in the weekend.”
Ravin said it was “devastating” that someone had lost their life in the incident.
Another neighbour, Milika Pikula, 67, said she knew the owner well, but wasn’t aware that another woman was living in the sleepout.
Pikula said she went to church at 7pm and returned home to police and two fire trucks in the area.
“I haven’t seen fire or smoke ... the police said they found a body.”
Fire and Emergency northern shift manager Garreth Lewis said multiple calls were received just before 9pm about the fire, and two crews were sent to the scene.
Just after 11pm, crews were then called to another house fire in Panmure, east Auckland.
They arrived to find the 120sq m house well alight.
Photos from the scene show a brick-and-tile single-storey house with the entire roof on fire. The blaze eventually gutted the home.
A Herald photographer said that, as crews battled the Panmure blaze, one of the occupants tried to run back into the house but was stopped.
Police detained and removed her from the scene in handcuffs, he said.
Another occupant was being treated on the ground by St John staff while crews battled the blaze and neighbours looked on.
Lewis said everyone at the Panmure fire was accounted for. Three fire engines and one command unit attended the scene, and the fire was extinguished.
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