Hazelmere Crescent Fire
An octogenarian mother and son escaped with their lives as a fireball ripped through her Te Awamutu home of nearly 40 years.
Graeme Corkin watched helplessly as his neighbour’s home burned.
The whānau, who have asked not to be named, had returned to the Hazelmere Crescent home and retired to bed before a call of nature roused the son at around 10.44pm on Saturday, according to a family spokesman.
He heard the ringing of smoke alarms over the crackle of flames which he saw glowing in the living room.
“His first reaction was to get his mother out.
“He got her to safety and went back in to get the cat, who was sleeping. He quickly realised that trying to fight it with a garden hose would be futile.”
Three fire appliances attended the scene, one crewed by volunteers from Hamilton, as Te Awamutu firefighters were engaged in a fundraising event at the town’s event centre when the alarm was sounded.
“The house was well involved when our vehicles arrived,” said senior station office Lex Soepnel. “It was a massive fireball.”
Further support was needed from Cambridge and Ōtorohanga, bringing the number of firefighters in attendance up to 26 – far more than is usual for the type of fire.
Soepnal said firefighters were wary of falling concrete roof tiles.
Once firefighters had established the whanau was safe, they focused on extinguishing the fire from the outside and ensuring it did not spread to neighbouring properties.
Neighbour Graeme Corkin, a retired Fonterra factory worker, was heading to bed after watching a movie when the drama unfolded.
“I got a knock on the door and was told to get out of the house,” he said.
“I had to stand on the other side of the road and watch the place go up in flames.”
Firefighters were on the scene well into the early hours of the morning, with members of their team supporting the whanau and explaining what was happening to the home.
A fire investigation team visited the scene on Sunday.
The whanau provided a statement in te reo with an English translation, to The News.
“We would like to take this time to acknowledge the waves of support that we’ve had from within our community. We would love to extend these acknowledgements to the emergency services who worked tirelessly through till the early morning to ensure our whare was no longer ablaze, to our whānau and friends who’ve wrapped around support and to those who continue to accommodate us. Though there are so many irreplaceable sentimental items lost in the fire, we’re very grateful that we were able to escape the emergency alive and well.”
Hazelmere Crescent Fire
Hazelmere Crescent Fire
