A man passing a burning house in Gisborne early this morning may have saved the life of an elderly man inside when he broke a window to get him out.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand sent four fire engines to the house at the city end of Aberdeen Rd around 1am.
Firefighters said the rear of the house was well alight when they got there.
“The interior of the house was significantly damaged,” said senior station officer Tim Lister.
“The elderly man who lived there was taken to hospital by ambulance, suffering from moderate smoke inhalation.”
It was expected the man would be released from hospital today.
“A passerby saw the fire, broke a window and hauled the man out to safety,” Lister said.
“He probably saved his life.”
The Gisborne Herald spoke to a neighbouring couple, who wished to remain anonymous, who saw most of what happened.
“We were woken by the sound of a loud car horn at the time the fire started.
“The person in that car told us when we went out to see what was happening that he saw smoke from the fire billowing when he crossed the Roebuck Road Bridge.”
The bridge is about three blocks away.
“He drove over to where the fire was, stopped outside, and could see the elderly man inside the house.
“So he broke a front window and got him out,” the neighbour said.
“The guy who rescued him told me his wife, who was with him, was telling him, ‘You’re going to hurt him, you’re going to hurt him’. ... but the guy replied, ‘It was either that or the elderly man was going to die in there.’”
The rescuer told the neighbours the elderly man was clearly disoriented.
“The firefighters who dealt with the fire were so professional,” the neighbour said.
“They did a great job.”
The fire started at the rear of the house.
A specialist fire investigator was at the scene this morning to establish the cause of the fire.