January 6, 2009

The tragic loss of life in an Auckland house fire today should serve as a powerful reminder to New Zealanders to take responsibility around fire safety to protect themselves and their family.

Even though firefighters were at the scene of the fire in the suburb of Mangere within three minutes of receiving the 111 call, the sheer speed of the fire meant little could be done to save the house and four of the eight occupants.

National Commander of the New Zealand Fire Service, Mike Hall, was appalled to hear that four children had died in the fire and four other family members taken to hospital with serious injuries. “The start of the year brings hope, ambition and the promise of a successful and happy year ahead but for this South Auckland family it has brought nothing but heartache and devastation.”

While the cause of the fire is still being investigated, early indications are that it originated in the kitchen and involved unattended cooking. Over 25% of all house fires start in the kitchen and they cause well over 20% of all fire deaths, a statistic that worries and frustrates the Fire Service.

“We’ve been telling people for years to ‘keep looking when they’re cooking’ yet still people leave cooking unattended with disastrous results,” said Mike Hall. “The tragedy in this particular case is that four children have needlessly and senselessly died because of it.”

At this stage it is unclear whether working smoke alarms were fitted in the house because of the level of destruction. Mike Hall has repeated his plea for all households to ensure they have smoke alarms fitted and tested regularly. “When you’re asleep, you can’t smell smoke and it’s the smoke that will kill you before the flames do. Smoke alarms provide critical early warning of fire and really can make the difference between life and death.”