Two people have died after a house fire in Bucklands Beach.
An investigation is now under way into how the events unfolded on Murvale Drive in the early hours this morning.
Detective Inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Va’aelua, of Counties Manukau CIB, said a scene examination has been under way.
It is expected police will remain at the property over the coming days, he said.
“Our priority is on carefully extracting the two deceased from the scene, and from there a post-mortem examination will need to be carried out,” Va’aelua said.
“We are unable to release further information about those who have died as the formal identification process has not yet begun.”
The investigation will work to establish how the fire occurred.
“We appreciate the community will have questions about how this has occurred, and this will now be the focus for investigators.”
Va’aelua said enquiries so far have established there were five occupants in the house at the time.
Three people were injured in the fire, one seriously. The two-storey home has been left ruined.
Two occupants remain in hospital.
“Police will be speaking with nearby residents as part of inquiries, but we ask anyone with information to contact us.”
Thick plumes of smoke and orange flames pour out the Bucklands Beach home on Murvale Drive.
A man who filmed a property engulfed by fire said neighbours gathered outside calling to other residents to hurriedly evacuate.
He said mini “explosions”, cracking and popping noises rang out across Murvale Drive, Bucklands Beach after the fire broke out at 2.30am today.
The video, filmed by a neighbour whose son saw the blaze before emergency services arrived, showed plumes of thick smoke billowing from the home, with large flames shooting out of the property.
He said the fire quickly engulfed the home. By the time firefighters arrived, the property was burning fiercely.
“[The flames] would have been 5m, maybe, in the air, from the top of the house.”
About 15 to 20 people were gathered around the property as the fire raged, he said, with people yelling at next-door neighbours to evacuate.
He said the top storey of the house was well alight and it was lucky there was little wind, given the risk of large trees burning on either side of the property.
Firefighters have extinguished a blaze at a home on Murvale Drive, in the eastern Auckland suburb of Bucklands Beach, overnight. Photo / NZ Herald
The neighbour said the fire was a wake-up call, and his thoughts were with the people who lived in the home.
“I feel sorry for them. I mean, I don’t know them, but obviously it’s pretty devastating,”
Neighbour Kathy saw bright orange flames rising “really high”, saying they raged for at least 20 minutes.
“I’ve never seen a fire like it. It was intense, it was scary. I won’t tell you what my first words were,” she said.
A smaller cordon, spanning the width of the road, is in place inside the cordon on Murvale Dr. Photo / Jaime Lyth
Four people in white boiler suits and ventilation masks were gearing up to enter the property just before midday.
A drone was sent up over the property this morning, and a second cordon has been established around the fire-damaged home marked by police tape.
An investigation is under way on Murvale Drive, Bucklands Beach, after a fire tore through a home overnight. Photo / Michael Craig
A homeowner on the street said he awoke to the sound of sirens early today after 2am.
“I think everybody woke up.
“It sounded like they broke the door down or something like that because of the fire,” he said, describing hearing banging noises.
He couldn’t see the fire from his window, but he could smell the smoke strongly from inside his house despite having all his windows and doors closed.
The home has left blackened and gutted after the fire. Photo / NZHerald
Fire crews battled the flames through the night, with neighbours reporting smoke billowing from smashed windows.
Another neighbour who had lived on the street for 40 years said police “poured down the street” in the early hours.
“Then the fire brigade and ambulance came … police were here well before the fire brigade, and heaps of them.”
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