That was the immediate thought John Hill had when he went to drop tomatoes off at his friend’s place and found it in flames.
The Lake Terrace Rd house in Birdlings Flat was engulfed by fire and black smoke was pouring out of it.
"I thought, ‘s**t, I hope he’s not inside’,” Hill, 72, told Star Media.
But fear quickly turned to relief – his friend was outside making a futile bid to fight the fire with a bucket of water.
Hill joined in, helping his friend battle the blaze, which started shortly before 4pm last Thursday, with the bucket which they filled with water from a duck pond on the property.
But any remote chance of beating the fire evaporated when the pond ran dry.
“That was hopeless, but still I tried,” he said.
It took five to 10min for the fire to tear through and destroy the house.
Fire and Emergency NZ said the blaze was caused by a damaged lithium ion battery pack.
The home owner declined to talk to Star Media.
Hill, who lives around the corner on Hillview Rd, said before he arrived his friend had tried to fight the fire with a water blaster before the property’s power went off.
The home owner was injured when a window blew out and pieces of hot glass and fire caught onto his left arm.
A nurse who lives nearby treated the burns with ointment. He was also checked over by Hato Hone St John.
Budgies and cockatiels in the house perished.
Four crews from the Little River Volunteer Fire Brigade were called to the blaze, with cover from Lincoln, Wigram, Spreydon and Redwood.
Akaroa fire chief Mark Thomson said it took about three hours to get the fire under control.
It flared up again at 7.22am the next day, despite being extinguished and firefighters keeping watch on the property overnight.
Hill said his friend had been sitting in his living room watching TV when he smelled smoke.
He then tried to put it out himself.
"Just a few minutes later the bloody panes were going out the bedroom back windows and out the roof,” he said.
Hill said his friend had owned the Birdlings Flat house since the 1970s.
He was in shock as they both watched the fire destroy his home.
Hill, who has lived in Birdlings Flat for 15 years, is now feeding his friend’s ducks and chickens – and ensuring people stay off the property.
