Fire destroys Hamilton sleepout

Published on Stuff.co.nz and in the Waikato Times

A house was only minutes away from burning down after a two-room sleepout on the same property caught fire in Hamilton on Thursday.

Fire Safety Investigator Peter Hallett said the heat from the fire had already damaged windows and blistered paint on the Queens Ave house in Frankton.

"It wouldn't have taken much more, you're only talking a minute or two until the radiated heat ignited something."

Shannon Edgecombe, who has lived on the property for five years, had just got home and was putting the milk in the fridge when she noticed the smoke wafting past the back door.

"I walked up [to the sleepout] and opened one of the bedroom doors and smoke just billowed out."

Edgecombe said panic that set when she saw the smoke. Her thoughts dashed from finding the phone, putting the hose in the room and the alarming realisation that part of her home was on fire.

Michael Smith, who was staying in the sleepout, had left the room five minutes earlier and was sitting in the main house when he heard Edgecombe yelling.

"There was just a thick cloud of black smoke coming out the back door and then the windows started shattering. I kicked in the door and pulled out the furniture."

The rooms were carpeted in ash and Smith was rummaging through his blackened draws, hoping to find some clothes that wern't too singed. Instead he found a bible.

"It's mostly readable," he said.

Emergency services were called to the fire about 9am and it took the fire brigade four minutes to get to the scene.

Hallett said they will be investigating to find the cause of the fire.

Roads were initially cordoned off as emergency services responded to the fire.

Emergency services were called to the fire at a residence in Queens Ave, Frankton, about 9am.