Volunteers turn out to contain blaze

The room of an Eketahuna house that was gutted by fire blamed on birds or vermin nesting in a meter box sited near the seat of the blaze. WAG 07Dec15 - GUTTED: The room of an Eketahuna house that

Close to a dozen volunteer firefighters from Eketahuna battled a blaze in an empty house in the town and successfully kept the flames from destroying the property early yesterday morning.

Eketahuna Fire Chief Max Mayer said the fire broke out in the Stanley St property about 2am and had been well-involved by the time a fire crew of 11 volunteers from the town brigade arrived at the scene.

Mr Mayer said the blaze had all but destroyed a front room in the house, which was unoccupied and had been on the market for more than a year, but firefighters had managed to rapidly contain the flames to the single room.

"We had it in control within about 20 minutes, so you wouldn't call it a good save but it was certainly a good stop."

Windows in the room had been blown out by the heat and there was smoke damage to other areas in the home, he said.

Mr Mayer said the high turn out of volunteers had been pleasing and was not usual for the weekend, although getting almost a dozen volunteers on site, of the 21 working out of the station, was common on a weeknight.

"Sometimes on the weekends we can struggle a bit with numbers, so it was good to get 11 on the job at that time of the morning."

Mr Mayer said a fire crew from Pahiatua had been scrambled to the blaze as well, but had been stood down soon after arrival.

He said the fire was not being treated as suspicious and it was believed the blaze had been ignited after vermin or birds had started nesting in the electricity meter box, which is sited next to the room at the front of the house.

"We thought at first it could have been kids or something, so checked things thoroughly and it's more probably it was birds or rats in the meter box."