By 1news.co.nz and is republished with permission
One person has died following a house fire in Auckland this evening.
Emergency services were called to the scene on Victoria St in Pukekohe around 6pm.
“Initial inquiries are underway alongside FENZ as to both the cause of the fire, and the cause of the person’s death,” a police spokesperson told 1News.
Twenty-two firefighters were called to tackle the blaze, a Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson told 1News.
The fire at the single-storey dwelling was extinguished around 6.30pm.
Witness Daniel Howard told 1News he had been watching television with his wife when she alerted him to the smell of smoke.
“I thought I’d better go check and seen a whole pile of smoke from the bottom of our driveway,” he said.
“By the time we got to the bottom of the driveway, there was smoke coming out from across the road the next house over.”
He said the scene was “pretty full on” with “smoke everywhere”.
Howard said they ran to the front gate of their neighbour’s house but “it was way too hot to get close to it”.
He said they checked on the neighbours who had come outside while others called the fire service.
“Pretty sad thing to come out to straight after Christmas.”
