Quick thinking by two men on their way to work saved a Dunedin house from being engulfed by fire yesterday morning.
Bryce Van de Water and Peter McLachlan were driving along Easther Cres on their way to buy building supplies just before 9.30am yesterday when they saw flames and smoke billowing from the back of a house in Rutherford St, Caversham.
''We could see flames and smoke and it's a dense residential area so we assumed it was a house fire and drove down,'' Mr McLachlan said.
While he called 111, Mr Van de Water leapt a fence and raced to the back of the property and started banging on the doors and windows to alert anyone who could have been inside.
''We couldn't see anyone or hear any sirens so I just jumped the fence and started banging on some windows .''
Once he was certain no-one was inside the burning building, Mr Van de Water grabbed a garden hose from a neighbour and started to extinguish the fire.
''It was pretty simple - you point the hose at the bottom of the fire so it doesn't spread up the wall ... you just do what you do,'' he said.
Mr McLachlan said the fire was quite large and there was a lot of smoke before the garden hose was used on it.
Both men said they did not have time to consider what was happening and just reacted to the situation, but they were never in danger.
''We never went inside and we stayed as far away from the flames as well as we could,'' Mr McLachlan said.
Soon afterwards, four fire engines arrived and firefighters were able to quickly extinguish what was left of the fire.
St Kilda Fire Station Senior Station Officer Ben Pitelen said the two men did everything correctly and stopped the fire spreading from the badly damaged kitchen and porch to the rest of the house.
Hot ashes left on a porch were thought to be the cause of the blaze, Mr Pitelen said.
The tenant of the property was at work when the fire started.
Police and St John also attended as a precaution.
