House badly damaged in blaze

Firefighters attend to a blaze at a single-storey house on the eastern outskirts of Invercargill yesterday.

The fire forced the closure of State Highway 1 as Fire and Emergency New Zealand responded to the blaze.

Shift supervisor Lyn Crosson said Fenz was alerted shortly after 9am.

"It was well and truly ablaze when we arrived."

There were no serious injuries, but an ambulance was called for a person who had suffered minor smoke inhalation.

Fire investigators had been called in to determine the cause of the fire, but it had not been "tagged as suspicious".

The single wooden structure had "sustained significant damage"