Exploding can alerts mother to flames engulfing her home

Firefighters remove part of the damaged roof. Photo / Sam Ackland

A Mt Maunganui mother heard a loud bang and ran from her bedroom to see flames shooting up the side of her house outside the lounge where her 4-year-old daughter was watching television.

The fire began on the patio of the single-storey house in Maunganui Rd about 1.30pm on Sunday, causing extensive damage to the lounge and the roof.

The kitchen was also damaged by serious heat and smoke.

The woman, who wanted to be identified only as Kate, said she had been reading a book in her bedroom when she heard a loud bang.

She went to investigate and was "pretty freaked" when she saw the fire.

She quickly got herself and her daughter Cleo outside and called 111.

The fire spread quickly to the inside of the house and into the roof, blowing out a lounge window.

But she is philosophical. "Things could be a lot worse, and thankfully my daughter was not hurt."

Kate said firefighters did a fantastic job to contain the blaze and she was grateful that a police officer who saw the smoke as he and his colleague drove past helped extinguish some of the fire with a garden hose before firefighters arrived.

Tauranga Fire Service senior station officer Mark Keller said it appeared the fire started outside, beside a couch which was pushed up against the side of the house.

The couch, a table and other items stacked nearby started to burn and the fire spread to the lounge, kitchen and roof.

The first firefighters to arrive used breathing apparatus but managed to put out the fire "pretty quickly".

Because it had spread to the roof they had to pull down bits of the ceiling and strip off sheets of corrugated iron to get to the burning lining underneath.

The cause of the fire is being investigated but a cigarette may be responsible, Mr Keller said. The loud bang was caused by an aerosol can exploding.

Mr Keller said it was fortunate Kate was home to hear the explosion and that she acted quickly to get herself and her daughter out of the house.

Mt Maunganui Fire Brigade station officer Lindsay Nicol said there were no smoke alarms in the home.

"If this had happened at 2am in the morning and this family had been sleeping inside the house it could have been a totally different story."