One dead after fire at Tolaga Bay house

The fire hit this house in Tologa Bay where it's believed a couple had been house-sitting for their son. Photo / Rebecca Grunwell, Gisborne Herald

One person is dead and their elderly partner unaccounted for after a Tolaga Bay home they were house-sitting at was engulfed by a fire overnight.

Two fire trucks and a tanker were sent to the scene of the house fire on Uawa Parade in Tolaga Bay, north of Gisborne, about 3.15am, fire spokesman Chris Dalton said.

Early this morning, the Fire Service was unable to confirm whether the occupants of the house were home when the blaze started.

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But by mid-morning central fire communications shift manager Murray Dunbar confirmed: "There is one fatality at the scene."

Fire investigators are still investigating, he said.

The other occupant has not yet been accounted for.

The house has been "completely destroyed".

Neighbour Gwen Gordon said she had seen the couple aged in their 80s, were house-sitting for their son who lived in Australia and had only been at the property for three months.

The couple's vehicles at the house and she thought they would have been inside it last night.

"They were just lovely, it's terrible," she said.

Uawa Parade resident Delys Hooper said the house which burnt down was old but recently renovated.

"They'd done it all up, renovated it and cut down all the trees. It was looking flash as. It's just horrible.

"I woke up when I heard all the sirens and went out the front of my house and couldn't see anything except the smoke. Then I went outside and just saw all the flames, it was huge."

Police and the Fire Service had been at the house all morning.