House gutted by fire from Christmas tree lights

The Brougham St home was gutted shortly after 1am on Saturday. Photo / Greymouth Star

A Westport house was destroyed in an early morning blaze on Saturday after the Christmas tree lights caught fire, engulfing the ceiling.

Westport Volunteer Fire Brigade fire chief Alan Kennedy said today it should serve as a warning for people not to leave their festive lights on continuously, and to update to safer tree light sets.

The Brougham St home was gutted shortly after 1am on Saturday. Mr Kennedy said the property appeared to be "a total loss".

Prior to the house going up in smoke the sole occupant was out in the garage undertaking some late-night work on a motorcycle. He had no idea anything was wrong until the power went out.

A Fire Service investigator has since established that an "old-fashioned" set of lights on the Christmas tree had shorted, igniting the tree.

Unfortunately for the property owner, he had placed his tree directly under a man-hole in the ceiling, which exacerbated the fire very quickly.

Mr Kennedy said the heat and force of the fire acted "like a chimney", quickly funnelling the fire directly into the ceiling space.

When the resident went to investigate why he had lost electricity suddenly, he was met by a neighbour running across the road shouting "your house is on fire".

Three fire appliances, including one from Waimangaroa, were needed to control the blaze and firefighters were at the scene for two hours.

The house suffered severe smoke and water damage, with the fire in the roof causing ceilings to collapse. The owner had lost all his possessions.

"I don't think it will be a rebuild. The whole roof had collapsed," Mr Kennedy said.

"The outcome is: renew your Christmas lights."

He said people should be buying light sets which had an in-built voltage reducer from 240 volts down to 12 volts and "don't leave them on all day and all night".

- Greymouth Star