Remember the "heater metre'' rule.
That was the advice from Fire and Emergency New Zealand fire risk management officer John Smalls yesterday after a day of sifting through the remains of a house in Wanaka destroyed by fire on Saturday morning.
Mr Smalls said he was unable to find the cause of the fire in the Norman Tce house but a "likely cause'' was inflammable material being close to a heat source.
"We recommend keeping anything combustible or anything that will burn a metre away from the heater - that's the heater metre, we call it.''
Wanaka volunteer deputy fire chief Tony Wellman said on Saturday no-one was at home when the fire broke out but a female occupant returned to find it ablaze.
A house in Norman Tce was well alight before fire crews arrived on the scene. PHOTO: SANDRA CAMERON
