Police have named the man who died in a boarding house fire in Christchurch on Monday.
He was 50-year-old Karl Frederick Blackett, of Christchurch.
Emergency services were called to New Brighton's Shaw Avenue just before 6am on Monday.
Swift-acting firefighters got the blaze under control less than 15 minutes later by containing the flames to the front bedroom.
Silvio Bezerra woke in his sleepout at the back of the property and managed to alert one of those living in the house to the flames, before they both ran out to the street.
However, Mr Blackett was not so lucky.
RNZ reports that one of his friends, Karen Holmes, said he was a talented artist who would be sorely missed.
"He loved travelling and he had a love for nature. He was searching [for a place to live] - he'd been in a flat here then gone away and done some travelling then come back here to settle."
She said she was in shock at the loss of her friend.
Of the boarding house's six remaining tenants, just one suffered an injury in the form of a small cut to their arm.
