Te Puke house fire: Neighbour raises alarm as home ‘engulfed’ in flames

“Get out!” Christian Grey yelled at his “in shock” neighbours as flames rapidly “engulfed” their home in Te Puke. Fire crews battled the house fire on Boucher Ave in Te Puke for five hours from 5pm yesterday. A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson said they received multiple calls and arrived to find the fire “well involved”. The incident was escalated to a second alarm, meaning additional units were needed. Six trucks from Greerton, Maketū, Mount Maunganui, Pāpāmoa and Te Puke responded. Once the fire was extinguished the last crews left the scene about 10pm. Grey lives in front of the house where the fire broke out and said he was in the garage when he saw smoke. He initially thought it was a fireplace clean-out before winter. Then their dogs started “going off” - “trying to warn people something was going on”. Grey ran to the back of his house and saw the top room of his neighbours’ house on fire. He “panicked”, grabbing a hose which was “luckily” already hooked up and started “spraying the roof”. “It was pretty bad,“ Grey said. Christian Grey panic grabbed a hose to try put out flames engulfing his neighbours’ home. Photo / Supplied He guessed the top floor burned for a “good 10 minutes”. Once it reached the bottom floor, “it just went off from there”. “It took probably two minutes for the whole bottom floor to be engulfed.” Grey tried to get neighbours to help, grabbing their hose and “wetting the roof” to “slow it down”. He said the fire was “just too much” and the heat was “unreal”. A couple and their about 20-year-old daughter were home, he said. The family had been renting the home for about three years. Grey said they were “in shock”. He said they had set up a bird enclosure along the fence by the house. He said fire crews arrived about 20 minutes after he noticed the fire, and the birds were all safe. Grey said he was “definitely” worried about his own home, as were other neighbours. Fire crews spent hours battling a house fire on Boucher Ave in Te Puke on Tuesday. Photo / Supplied Trees and bushes around the house were catching fire. He said it was “lucky” there was a “big gully” behind the home and no wind. Grey said the family were staying with friends until they figured out their next steps. “The house is totalled ... a complete write off.” An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway. Annabel Reid is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, based in Rotorua. Originally from Hawke’s Bay, she has a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Canterbury.

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