Postie alerts sleeping household to fire

Sue Crawford has been dubbed a hero after her quick reactions to a house fire. Photo / APN

A postie who woke the occupants of a burning house says she only did what anyone else would do.

Residents of the home in Tamatea Rd, Taupo, were saved at 5.45am on Wednesday when they were woken by the postie on her way to work.

Taupo posties' team leader Sue Crawford, who also lives in Tamatea Rd, raised the alarm when she saw smoke.

At first, she thought the smoke was from a chimney but when she realised it wasn't, she took action.

"When I left home, which is only five doors up and was driving down the road, I saw smoke coming out and thought, 'Heck, that fire's going well at this time of the morning.'

"But as I got closer I looked in and there were flames coming through the roof. So from then on it was all go."

Mrs Crawford rang the Fire Service then banged on the front door trying to wake the people inside. When that did not work, she ran around the back to a bedroom and started "bashing" on the window, yelling.

The people inside woke but were disoriented. When they realised what was happening they ran to the front door. Mrs Crawford tried to help them as they were coming out but the smoke started to affect her. She then ran home to get blankets.

The occupants got out of the house unharmed.

By the time she got back, other neighbours were helping and the Fire Service had arrived.

The occupants of the home did not want to comment about what happened but the assistant area commander for the Central Lakes fire area, Nigel Richards, said there was minimal damage to the house because firefighters were able to put the flames out quickly.

He said the Fire Service was investigating the cause but it appeared to have started around a woodburner in the centre of the house.

Although he was extremely pleased with the quick work of the Fire Service, Mr Richards said this fire again brought up the issue of smoke alarms. There were none in the house.

"This is another example of a residential dwelling without a smoke alarm," he said. "Whether you rent a property, whether you own your property, whether you've lived in it for five minutes or 20 years - get a smoke alarm in your house.

"I'm not going to say the circumstances could have been any worse as [the residents] may well have woken up, but normally you don't wake up to smoke on your property, normally you die in the smoke on your property.

"So you could say on this occasion that perhaps these people's lives were saved by the postie and that she's a hero."

Mrs Crawford said it was just good timing.

"I just did what anyone else would have done in that situation.

"It was just good timing when I was going down the road as I had to be at work at 5.50am. I was just helping out."

- APN