Burnt-out house will be levelled

The Beach Haven state house was unoccupied when the fire broke out. Photo / Supplied

A state house on the North Shore is due for demolition today after it was gutted in a fire on Monday afternoon.

A house at 2 Taurus Cres in Beach Haven was seriously damaged after catching fire about 4.30pm.

It is understood the house was empty at the time of the blaze - the tenants who had been living there had moved out.

Smoke poured from the house during the blaze as firefighters battled to bring it under control.

Fire Service spokesman Paul Radden said the fire was well involved in the building by the time emergency services arrived at the scene.

"It is substantially damaged," he said.

Four trucks with 16 firefighters attended the incident and extinguished the fire.

A woman claiming to be the sister of a man who lived at the address took to Facebook to thank members of the community for their support after the incident.

"My nephews & nieces are safe and with their dad," she wrote.

"Please accept our thanks to one and all for the lovely kind offers of items and things."

She went on to write that the family did not, however, need donations.

"The kids are fine and will still have the Christmas that was planned," the post read.

Another post on Facebook says: "Oh no! That's awful, so glad they're safe xxx mucho aroha."

A Housing New Zealand spokesman confirmed the house belonged to the agency, but declined to comment further.

Specialist fire investigator Gary Beer said investigations into the cause of the blaze were continuing.

"We are still open to anything. The police are still doing their inquiries."

Mr Beer said there had been some "background noise" as to what may have caused the fire, but he would not speculate.