It was one of the more unusual callouts ever attended by Canterbury firefighters.
When an Ashburton Volunteer Fire Brigade crew was called to a house filled with steam, firefighters found a fitting attached to a regulator had blown off the hot water cylinder.
Chief Alan Burgess said what had occurred was effectively an explosion due to high pressure from the water.
It was so powerful, the blast had blown a hole in the wall of the cupboard the cylinder was in - and cracked the gib in a wall outside the cupboard.
"I don’t think we have been to anything like that before," Burgess said.
The incident happened in a relatively newly built house at Tinwald.
The brigade ventilated the house in order to dissipate the steam.
The incident took place about 4.30pm last Wednesday.
Earlier that morning at about 1.30am, a fire was reported in some material stacked up beside a shed at the rear of a section in Ashburton.
Noticed by a motorist, who phoned emergency services, the fire was caused by log burner ashes.
Burgess said the blaze was a good reminder for people to wait for five days before they disposed of ashes.
