The entire Gore Volunteer Fire Brigade attended a house fire in Gore on Sunday night, when a clothes dryer laden with lint overheated.
Chief fire officer Steve Lee said the laundry of the house in Hamilton Pl was well alight when two appliances arrived about 9.30 pm.
Neighbours had seen the fire and informed the occupants, who evacuated the burning house uninjured, he said.
All 25 members of the Gore Volunteer Fire Brigade attended and had the fire under control within 10 minutes, he said.
Fire risk management officer Paul Glanville, of Invercargill, said he investigated the laundry yesterday. The fire had started because lint had not been cleaned from the clothes dryer and caused the appliance to overheat, which caused the wall behind the vent of the dryer to catch fire.
The lint filter in a dryer should be cleaned daily, he said.
The smoke alarms had failed to detect the fire because they had not been checked or maintained, he said.
