By ANGELA GREGORY
WHANGAREI - Two preschool boys died in a house fire in a Whangarei suburb yesterday.
Their bodies were found under a bed and it is likely they hid there to get away from the flames.
Their grandfather was mowing the lawn behind the Housing New Zealand house in Heretaunga St,
Tikipunga, when the fire broke out about 3.45 pm.
Norm Meehan, who lives across the road, was one of the first to spot the flames.
"I heard an explosion ... opened the front door and saw all this black smoke.
"I thought it was a big rubbish fire."
Mr Meehan then saw flames leap up from the garage below the wood-and-fibrolite house.
"The grandfather was outside waving his arms and panicking.
"He said there were kids inside but couldn't get near them."
Mr Meehan said the flames were roaring to the top of the roof.
When the children's grandmother arrived she rushed up to her former husband.
"She just hit the ground, screaming and wailing."
Police could not name the two 4-year-olds last night as not all next of kin had been notified.
The Herald understands the boys were related, and the mother of one lives in Australia.
Devastated and shocked family and friends wept and hugged in the street while fire investigators worked in the burned shell of the house.
The Whangarei chief fire officer, Rob Saunders, said a cause of the fire would not be known until today.
He said it had started in the basement and the flames would have been fanned by the strong wind. "It was well oxygenated."
When three engines arrived from the Whangarei station the house was engulfed, and officers could only search for the bodies after the fire was out, said Mr Saunders.
"The children probably took refuge from the fire under the bed."
He said it was a long time since Whangarei firefighters had had to deal with such a serious fire.
"It has been shattering for all of us."
The heat was so intense that a nearby warratah tree was completely blackened, and a bottle-brush hedge at the section boundary was badly singed.
A neighbour said she had heard the children were growled at just that morning about playing with matches.
Another neighbour, Tony Faulkner, said they were friendly kids who used to go up and down his driveway on skateboards.
"It is very sad. They were only little but pleasant kids who would say hello.
"They played marbles with the other children."
By ANGELA GREGORY
WHANGAREI - Two preschool boys died in a house fire in a Whangarei suburb yesterday.
Their bodies were found under a bed and it is likely they hid there to get away from the flames.
Their grandfather was mowing the lawn behind the Housing New Zealand house in Heretaunga St,
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