Smoke alarms help alert Napier family during house fire

The badly-damaged house on the outskirts of Napier. Photo / NZME

Working smoke alarms helped to alert a family to safely evacuate a large house fire in Napier, a senior firefighter says.

The fire happened about 4pm on Sunday on Riverbend Rd in Meeanee and caused “significant damage” to the home.

Residents were inside the house when the fire started but fortunately escaped uninjured.

Thick smoke could be seen from nearby streets during the blaze.

Crews from Bay View, Hastings, Haumoana, Taradale and Napier were all called to the single-storey house fire.

A Fire and Emergency NZ spokeswoman said the 15-metre-by-15-metre home was “well involved” on arrival.

Firefighters spent roughly four hours at the scene.

A recovery team also attended, which the spokeswoman said “assists with things like helping people who have lost all of their belongings”.

Firefighters at the scene on Sunday. Photo / Samantha Fargher

Hato Hone St John confirmed they were notified but did not attend with an ambulance as they were not required.

Napier Fire Station senior station officer Jamie Nichol confirmed a family were inside the home when the fire started.

“They were alerted by a smoke alarm,” he said.

He said none of the residents were injured and the smoke alarms certainly helped.

He said the fire was not being treated as suspicious, and the fire did not spread to any nearby homes.

The badly-damaged house has since been fenced off, and children’s bikes were still visible on the front lawn as of Tuesday.

Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.