A smoke alarm saved the day for a block of flats in Wanganui East, when a resident went out and left corn boiling on the stove.
A passing member of the public heard the smoke alarm going off in the Talbot St flat and called the fire service.
Police also responded to the call and arrived first. They entered the house and took the pot off the stove before any damage could be done.
"Someone had just been boiling corn in a pot on the stove," Wanganui Fire Service senior station officer Gary Wilson said.
"They forgot about it and went out somewhere . . . a lady walking past on the footpath heard the smoke alarm go off and rang us."
The call came in at 10.15 yesterday morning . "That showed the importance of the old working smoke alarm."
Had the woman not heard the alarm going off, the situation could have been much worse for all the residents in the block of four flats, he said.