Blaze residents fire up at media

BRADLEY AMBROSE/Daily News

FANNING THE FLAMES: A man at a Glenpark Ave address which was partially destroyed by fire yesterday gets ready to throw a brick at a Taranaki Daily News photographer and reporter yesterday.

Relevant offers

Bricks, bottles, rocks and verbal abuse were hurled at a Taranaki Daily News photographer and reporter covering a story about a serious house fire in New Plymouth yesterday.

Neighbours and a couple of people at the property yelled obscenities and threatened the photographer and reporter as they approached the property about 10.30am.

The five residents of the Glenpark Ave address were forced to flee the burning building early yesterday and firefighters say it was only luck that nobody was killed in the blaze.

Firefighters were called to the address about 1.50am after a fire broke out in a bedroom. One person living at the address, who was in the bedroom when the fire started, had to be taken to hospital suffering smoke inhalation.

An unattended candle is believed to have set a bed on fire.

The house had no smoke alarms in the bedrooms and others in the house had no batteries.

Senior Station officer Sam Bennett urged the public to have smoke alarms installed.

"It was sheer luck that there was no loss of life in the property.

"We could have had five fatalities in there this morning," Mr Bennett said.

When firefighters arrived the house was well ablaze with flames leaping out of windows and through the roof.

"As a minimum requirement, people need to have smoke alarms in every sleeping room and in the corridor that leads to those sleeping rooms," Mr Bennett said.

Three fire engines and 12 firefighters battled the fire which destroyed more than 70% of the house.

Mr Bennett said smoke alarms would have given the occupants more warning which would have helped save the building. The extreme heat from the blaze started cracking windows in neighbouring houses and firefighters had to work hard to save them from going up in smoke.

Firefighters remained at the scene until about 6am.

- © Fairfax NZ News