A woman had to be dragged from a burning home in South Auckland by quick-thinking firefighters after a fire broke out in the kitchen.
Three fire trucks and 12 firefighters from Otara, Otahuhu and Papatoetoe attended the scene of the blaze on Gilbert Rd in Otara about 2.15am today, station officer Richard Knight said.
When crews arrived the fire, which was contained to the roof, was spreading quickly. A man in his 50s with d burns to one of his hands was outside and alerted firefighters that someone was still inside, Mr Knight said.
Crews were quick to respond and soon found a woman in her 40s in one of the bedrooms.
"The house was smoke logged, that person was unresponsive when we found them, and we managed to basically drag them to the outside of the house," he said.
St John ambulance paramedics treated the man for burns and the woman for smoke inhalation at the scene. Neither were taken to hospital.
Mr Knight said after rescuing the woman, the Otara fire crew "attacked" the fire from inside the house, while Otahuhu crews tried to control the blaze by removing roof tiles.
"We managed to stop the fire escalating. It's looking pretty good. The only way you could even tell if there had been a fire there was if you drove around and saw the tiles missing off the roof.
"My crew and the other crews involved did a very good job of stopping the fire spreading and containing it to the ceiling basically."
Mr Knight said he believed the fire broke out in the kitchen "and [it] would appear to be an unattended cooking fire".
A fire scene investigator had been to the property and would return later today.
