Neighbours help fleeing kids | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

Neighbours helped rescue screaming children from a house fire at Papamoa as their parents fought desperately to save their home.

The children's mother and two other occupants used pots and pans to try to extinguish the blaze in Hartford Ave but it was not enough.

The Monday night fire, reported in yesterday's Bay of Plenty Times, smashed windows while flames licked the walls of the two-storey house.

It destroyed the upper level, leaving behind a burned-out shell.

Gaping holes could be seen though the floor and only charred frame work and outer walls remained. There was barely any trace of furniture or possessions on the upper level.

Two 1-year-old children and children aged two, three and four were playing upstairs in the two-storey house when a smoke alarm sounded in the upper level at 7.30pm.

It is believed they were playing with a cigarette lighter.

The mother, who spoke on condition she was not identified, said she thought the smoke alarm sounded because she was cooking but then thought it was odd it was coming from upstairs. She and her partner found smoke coming from a bedroom wardrobe.

"We thought it could just be a little fire but no, it was full-on. The wardrobe was just, you could see it, it was full of smoke and flames," she said.

"We tried to put it out but I knew we couldn't. The heat, you could tell we couldn't stop it.

"I wetted a blanket but it was too much. I burned my hair."

The heat from the fire was unbearable, she said.

"I don't know what happens now. I don't know what will happen to us."

The family does not have contents insurance and was renting.

At the scene yesterday, the woman surveyed the damage.

She recalled the panic of trying to put the fire out.

"The fire was bigger than pots. When it is that bad you don't stick around. That heat in there... it didn't take long for the windows to start smashing."

The woman shook her head at the memory.

With help from neighbours she rounded up her children and put them inside the family van, parking it outside the front of the home's gate where it was "protected".

When she turned her attention back on the house, the entire second story was in flames.

All she could do was stand and watch helplessly.

"I'm just amazed at how fast it spread. Minutes. Not even that."

Across the road, neighbour Leah Bidois called 111 after seeing smoke coming from the home's windows.

"When I came outside there was just smoke coming out the window. By the time I rang the fire department there was smoke and flames. It was just full on."

"It was horrible. Windows were blowing out. They [the children] were screaming. People were grabbing them and running them away with their parents."

Mount Maunganui senior station officer Lindsay Nicol said the cause of the fire was still being established but it was not suspicious.

Tauranga Fire Service's risk management officer Ken McKeagg said children playing with fire and cooking were the two big causes of most house fires.

"It's the age-old message of keeping lighters and matches out of reach of children. If the kids get hold of them then you can kiss your house goodbye pretty much," Mr McKeagg said.