Family loses all in blaze

A New Plymouth mother was left devastated yesterday morning after her Spotswood home was gutted by a fire that is being investigated as a suspected arson.

A tearful Sharon Land said she and her two children were asleep when the flickering of flames and smoke alarms woke her about 3.30am.

"I just grabbed my kids and threw them out," she told the Taranaki Daily News yesterday morning.

All the family's possessions were left inside the rented Tahurangi Pl property however, including clothes, new Christmas presents, and furniture.

"All the kid's presents are gone, the poor little buggers," she said.

Her contents were uninsured, she said, and she is staying with neighbours while she looks for another home in the Spotswood area so her children don't have to change schools.

New Plymouth Detective Sergeant Greg Gray confirmed the cause of the blaze was being investigated and treated as suspicious by police and fire services.

The fire started in a raised area underneath the house.

"Needless to say that where it started, we believed it to be suspicious," Mr Gray said. Police want to hear from anyone with information about the fire.

Meanwhile, New Plymouth Fire Brigade senior station officer Ian Drewery praised the neighbours and smoke alarms for preventing the outcome being much worse. "Alarms save lives," he said.

"If those people hadn't woken up, well it was a pretty aggressive fire." He said the early alarm meant fire crews brought the fire under control quite quickly.