A car parked outside an Auckland house badly-damaged by fire and where two occupants remain “outstanding” has been towed away.
Tens hours after a fire broke out in East Auckland, police have strict cordons in place blocking off more than a dozen homes around the badly damaged house that was engulfed in flames.
A car parked on the road outside the Murvale Dr property and parked under a police investigation tent was removed from the street by a tow truck.
Three people were injured in the fire, one seriously, and the two-storey home has been left gutted while police urgently search for those missing.
As of 12.30pm, police and forensic investigators were still working inside the cordon, walking in and out of the house and pulling equipment from their cars.
A blue forensic tent has been erected over a blue vehicle parked on the street outside the house.
A man who filmed a property engulfed by fire where two people are unaccounted for says neighbours gathered outside calling to other residents to hurriedly evacuate.
He said mini “explosions”, cracking and popping noises rang out across Murvale Drive, Bucklands Beach after the fire broke out at 2.30am today.
The video, filmed by a neighbour whose son saw the blaze before emergency services arrived, showed plumes of thick smoke billowing from the home, with large flames shooting out of the property.
He said the fire quickly engulfed the home. By the time firefighters arrived, the property was burning fiercely.
“[The flames] would have been five metres, maybe, in the air, from the top of the house.”
About 15 to 20 people were gathered around the property as the fire raged, he said, with people yelling at next-door neighbours to evacuate.
He said the top storey of the house was well alight and it was lucky there was little wind, given the risk of large trees burning on either side of the property.
The neighbour said the fire was a wake-up call, and his thoughts were with the people who lived in the home.
“I feel sorry for them. I mean, I don’t know them, but obviously it’s pretty devastating,”
Neighbour Kathy saw bright orange flames rising “really high”, saying they raged for at least 20 minutes.
“I’ve never seen a fire like it. It was intense, it was scary. I won’t tell you what my first words were,” she said.
Counties Manukau CIB Detective Inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Va’aelua said police were “urgently” searching for those unaccounted for.
A large portion of the street has been cordoned off, with a smaller section spanning the entire width of the road in front of the home taped off within.
Four people in white boiler suits and ventilation masks were gearing up to enter the property just before midday.
A drone was sent up over the property this morning, and a second cordon has been established around the fire-damaged home marked by police tape.
“We are working to establish what has occurred and urgently locate the people unaccounted for.”
Va’aelua said police and Fire and Emergency were investigating.
Police would remain on the scene, with cordons established on Murvale Drive between Janome Place and Jandell Cres.
A homeowner on the street said he awoke to the sound of sirens early today after 2am.
“I think everybody woke up.
“It sounded like they broke the door down or something like that because of the fire,” he said, describing hearing banging noises.
He couldn’t see the fire from his window, but he could smell the smoke strongly from inside his house despite having all his windows and doors closed.
Fire crews battled the flames through the night, with neighbours reporting smoke billowing from smashed windows.
Hours after the blaze, the Bucklands Beach street still smells of smoke.
Another neighbour who had lived on the street for 40 years said police “poured down the street” in the early hours.
“Then the fire brigade and ambulance came … police were here well before the fire brigade, and heaps of them.”
Hato Hone St John said two people, one in a serious and the other in a moderate condition, were taken to Middlemore Hospital.
A third person suffering minor injuries was assessed by paramedics and treated at the scene.