Fatal fire on Oranga St in New Plymouth. Photo: ROBIN MARTIN / RNZ
A person has been killed in a house fire overnight in New Plymouth, described as lighting up the whole street .
Emergency services were called to the single-storey house on Oranga Street just before 11pm on Wednesday.
Fire and Emergency shift manager Belinda Beets said an adult was found dead in the blaze, while a child was in hospital with burns to their hands.
It was initially reported as a bedroom fire, however, firefighters found it "well-involved" upon arrival.
Beets earlier said it was unclear whether everyone had escaped the fire because "people kept going back into the house, so we weren't sure if everyone was out or not". That prompted an immediate response from police and ambulance, she said.
'Where's my uncle?'
A neighbour who did not want to be named told RNZ she and her partner were alerted to the fire by a strange sound.
"All we could hear was 'crackle, crackle', and I was like, 'What the f*** is that?'"
Her partner looked outside and told her the neighbour's place was on fire.
"We boosted outside to make sure everyone was safe. By the time we got there, our neighbour was there with the little boy. And we asked, 'Is anyone else inside?' They said 'no', but then the boy started screaming: 'Where's my uncle?'"
The neighbour said the boy's hands were burned, and he was in shock, having trouble remembering his name.
"Blessed to be alive, that boy," she said.
"I'll never forget that boy's screams."
She understood the uncle had gone back inside the house for his ute keys, "but he never came back out".
One person was killed in the fire and a child was injured. Photo: ROBIN MARTIN / RNZ
Ambulance and fire services arrived at the same time, and firefighters went "busting into the house".
She said no one could have survived a fire of that scale, which lit up the whole street and blew out the front and back of the house.
Another neighbour, Rachel, said she was on the phone with emergency services at about 11pm when they showed up. She said the flames were incredibly high, but it was the noise that struck her.
"That was the scariest thing - just how loud everything sounded [from] the fire... the banging and the crashing of the glass, that was the worst part."
She said she had lived on the street about seven years, but had not met the people in the house.
Three fire trucks and two operational support vehicles were on site at the peak of the fire.
Firefighters left at 3.30am and the site was in the hands of police.
Police and FENZ would return on Thursday morning to carry out a scene examination.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
