Two crews of firefighters remained on standby at the scene this morning, after some were released from about 3am – as operations began to scale back.
At the height of the blaze, six fire trucks, an aerial appliance, a command unit and a breathing apparatus tender for decontamination were in attendance.
Hudson said an investigation would be carried out to establish the origin and cause of the fire.
On social media, some users reported smelling smoke inside Wellington Hospital and as far away as Te Aro.
Fire and Emergency NZ advised anyone affected by the smoke to keep their doors and windows closed, and stay inside.
Earlier, at 1am, shift manager Chris Dalton said the fire was “pretty bad” and still had not been contained.
Firefighters were working to stop the flames from spreading when RNZ spoke to him.
“That’s what we’re working on now,” he said, noting many of the houses in the area were older structures.
“It’s an area where lots of houses are all built next to each other.”
It was not immediately clear at that time whether anyone was inside the building, Dalton said.
Newtown resident Shay Vaseneva said she could see firefighters putting up caution tape around Mansfield St at about 12.30am.
“The house is in flames, there’s no doubt, with quite a few fire trucks and police cars. It looked like they were making sure the fire doesn’t spread to the neighbours, obviously it must be unsafe inside.”
The smoke and smell were “pretty bad down the street from the house”.
- RNZ
