A fire that burnt through an Oamaru house yesterday has left the owners "pretty devastated''.
The husband and wife, who asked not to be named, watched as firefighters from the Oamaru Volunteer Fire Brigade worked to put out the fire, but the vacant house the couple had spent the past two years renovating could not be saved.
Oamaru Senior Station Officer Brett Delamere said "about 80%'' of the house burnt yesterday.
When crews arrived, they could see flames coming out of the side window.
"The rest of the house was chock-full of black smoke,'' he said.
Mr Delamere said that when the fire crews arrived, neighbours informed them the house was empty.
Firefighters forced entry through a back entrance; two firefighters in breathing apparatus entered.
Two high pressure hoses were used inside the house, while a low pressure hose was used to douse the flames in the burning room on the north side of the property.
Lisa McEvoy, who lives across the street from the house in Lune St, said when she arrived home about noon, she did not see any smoke.
She went inside to put the kettle on, and her son called out to her from the second floor to say he saw smoke outside.
"By the time I got to the gate, it was just billowing out [of the house],'' she said.
"It went from nothing to 'whoof'.''
About 20 people stood in Lune St and watched the firefighters work.
The homeowners said they had in the past bought homes, renovated them, and sold them, but had liked this house and its location and had not decided on their plans for it.
They had spent the past two years stripping the house, working on it as a weekend project.
The house was insured.
