Neighbours say a woman was staying in a sleepout at a South Auckland property where a person has been found dead.

Emergency services were called to a property on fire on Tamaki Ave, Ōtāhuhu, around 9pm last night.

One person was found dead inside a shed, which was understood to have been used as a sleepout.

Police are now working to establish what caused the fatal blaze.

Counties Manukau West CIB detective senior sergeant Mike Hayward said police and firefighters attended the incident and have since launched an investigation.

“Police are working to establish what has occurred and will remain on scene,” Hayward said.

Fire and Emergency assistant commander Chris Delfos said the shed, in Ōtāhuhu, appeared to be a sleepout.

“Crews arrived and were faced with a well-involved, medium-sized shed,” he said outside the burned Tamaki Ave property.

“We did not have any indication that there were persons trapped in the building, and while the crews were extinguishing the fire, they unfortunately found the deceased.”

Specialist fire investigators and police were looking at where and how the fire started, Delfos said.

He urged people to check their smoke alarms and make sure they have an escape plan “so these sort of things don’t happen”.

Police and Fire and Emergency NZ have launched an investigation into the fatal fire. Photo / Anna Heath

Next-door neighbour Ravin, 48, said he saw flames burning about 4m high at the back of the house.

“I looked out of the window and saw flames really shooting up.”

Ravin said he knew the owner of the home, a woman who recently lost her husband late last year. He said another woman lived with her as a helper in the sleepout.

“I knew the lady personally, the owner. And the husband as well. I only saw the owner a few times, the lady.

“I came to find out that there was another lady living in the sleepout. She was like an assistant or helper to the owners.

“Seems like it was the assistant that was in the sleepout because she was the one who was around in the weekend.”

Ravin said it was “devastating” that someone had lost their life in a house fire.

Ravin, 48, said a woman stayed in the sleepout. Photo / Anna Heath.

Another neighbour, Milika Pikula, 67, said she knew the owner well, but wasn’t aware another woman was living in the sleepout.

Pikula said she went to church at 7pm last night and returned home to police and two fire trucks in the area.

“I haven’t seen fire or smoke ... the police said they found a body.”

Milika Pikula, 67. Photo / Anna Heath.

Fire and Emergency northern shift manager Garreth Lewis said multiple calls were received just before 9pm about the fire and two crews had been sent to the scene.

Lewis said just after 11pm, crews were then called to another house fire in Panmure, east Auckland.

They arrived to find the 120sq m house well alight.

The Panmure house was destroyed in the blaze, which was reported around 11pm. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Photos from the scene show a brick and tile single-storey house with the entire roof on fire. The blaze eventually gutted the home.

A Herald photographer said as crews battled the Panmure blaze, one of the occupants tried to run back into the house but was stopped.

Police detained and removed her from the scene in handcuffs, he said.

A woman was taken away in handcuffs after attempting to run back into the Panmure house. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Another occupant from the fire was being treated on the ground by St John Ambulance staff as neighbours looked on while crews battled the blaze.

Lewis said everyone at the Panmure fire was accounted for. Three fire engines and one command unit attended the scene, and the fire was extinguished, with a fire investigator attending the scene.