Nelson house fire leaves children burnt

Four children have been saved from a house fire in Nelson but taken to hospital with burn injuries.

A fire spokesman said they were called to Weka St around 8pm tonight. He said it had started as a kitchen fire but spread to the rear of the house and into the roof.

"Four children from the premises have been trasnported to Nelson Hospital with superficial burns.

"The house has suffered moderate damage."

Lillian Reynish ran outside after she heard screaming to discover her neighbour's house was on fire.

"We thought they were having an argument.

"The dad came running over to us and said 'my house is on fire'."

Reynish said it was chaos. The children were terrified, two little girls had been burnt and were bathing their injuries in a woman's house across the road. Reynish thinks they'd be aged between a few months old and ten.

"Everybody was screaming

"[The father] was beside himself, he was losing it."

Meanwhile her husband Brian poked their garden house through the window into their neighbours kitchen to put out the flames. He succeeded but not before the fire spread to the roof.

When the fire brigade came they took over and started pulling off flaming chunks off roof to stop the fire spreading said Reynish.

"They've pulled the house to pieces."

Reynish said the whole ordeal was "a bit scary", especially because their wooden house is only 6m from their neighbours.

"I'd hate to wake up to a bit of a crackle."

Reynish said the family seem very quiet and nice. They had only been living in the Housing New Zealand home for two months.The mother is understood to have been interviewed on television about the housing shortages when she didn't have a house.

Four fire appliances attended the incident. The mother and father of the children were also present.