Another "Near Miss" House Fire

Fire and Emergency New Zealand - Lower Hutt

Fire Crews attended another “near- miss” unattended cooking fire this afternoon at a property in Naenae. Thankfully, a couple of guys going past saw the fire in the porch of a house, and called 111 to tell Fire and Emergency NZ about it.

By the time of the intervention by the passers-by, the occupants of the house had been alerted to the fire by the sounding of their smoke alarms, but they had no idea of where the smoke was coming from.

The fire itself was in a frying pan on a gas cooker in the porch at the rear of the house. The porch suffered minor damage, but the fire was only seconds away from breaking through the back door and into the house.

“Unattended cooking is the leading cause of fire and fire fatalities in New Zealand”

In this case, the smoke alarms would have prevented a fatality, but the unattended cooking, even though it was outside the back door, could have led to the loss of a family home and most of their possessions.

So there’s two lessons from this fire call today:

1. “Keep looking while you’re cooking!”

2. Smoke Alarms Save Lives

And if fire should happen to break out in your home…

Get out and stay out
In a fire, get everybody out and call 111.
And whatever you do, stay out.