THE upstairs area that filled with smoke on Monday.
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A WORKING smoke alarm has been credited with saving a rental property in Opotiki’s King Street on Monday afternoon, after an electric blanket in an upstairs bedroom, normally shared by three girls, caught fire.
The five-bedroom, two-storey house, rented to Keita Wiki and her husband, who have five girls aged two to nine, is managed by C&J Property Management for the owner, who is in Australia.
Mrs Wiki said the smoke damaged her girls’ two upstairs bedrooms and an office.
“And the beds and bedding are a bit burnt. The smoke has gone through all the girls’ items and they have no clothes or anything,” she said.
She said she arrived home from an Opotiki College computer course, followed by an Ashbrook School board of trustees meeting, to hear the upstairs smoke alarm sounding as she walked in the door.
She said hearing the alarm made her go upstairs and investigate, otherwise she wouldn’t have known anything was wrong, she said.
She discovered more than she bargained for when she reached the top of the staircase and walked straight into toxic smoke quickly filling that part of the house.
Mrs Wiki was treated by an ambulance crew at the scene and was on oxygen for 30 minutes to bring her coughing under control, she said.
Thankfully, her girls were at school and kindergarten at the time, and her husband was at work.
Opotiki volunteer firefighter Barry Hennessy said the fire had been caused by an electric blanket on a bed. It had bunched up, causing it to over-heat.
He said the upstairs area of the house was smoke-logged and it was lucky a working smoke alarm had alerted the mother of five to the situation.
He says the good fortune underpinned the importance of having working smoke alarms.
He said the incident reinforced the point that people needed to be extra vigilant with electric blankets.
Two fire appliances attended the callout at 76 King Street, with firefighters equipped with breathing apparatus removing beds and extinguishing the fire using a hose reel before ventilating the house.
Mr Hennessy said smoke alarms at the property had recently been installed by the property manager, as prescribed by new tenancy legislation that came into force on July 1.
The new law requires all landlords to supply rental properties with working smoke alarms, but there is also a responsibility for tenants and occupiers to ensure they are working properly, too.
Mrs Wiki said the ordeal proved to her just how critical working smoke alarms were.
CHARRED and smoke-damaged children’s mattresses that, for now, have been left out of sight and out of mind outside a King Street home saved by a smoke alarm. OB1721 1
She said that not long ago, C&J Property Management had ensured the smoke alarms in the house were installed and working properly.
She said at first her girls were sad about what had happened, “but I told them we should be glad that we are all alright and I said to them we can always get new beds and gear”.
Chris Donkin, of C&J Property Management, said the working smoke alarm had spared the home’s owner a $200,000-$300,000 loss.
He said a firefighter had told him another five minutes and the outcome could have been very different.
“In her situation it was hugely fortuitous the alarm upstairs had been screaming away at her when she walked in the door.”
Mr Donkin his company installed 320 new smoke alarms in its properties ahead of the new smoke detector deadline of July 1.
He said the fire at King Street was the third property where smoke detectors had “done their job”.
Community rallies for Wiki family
THE Opotiki community is rallying to help out the Wiki family after fire damaged many possessions.
“I was a bit lost yesterday (Monday), just trying to get quotes to replace some of the items damaged. No one in town seems to do blankets or sheets or anything – you have to go out of town for that,” mother of five Keita Wiki said.
Enter offers like the one from Smith’s City Opotiki store manager Sarah Sullivan.
Ms Sullivan said Mrs Wiki came into her store on Monday following her ordeal needing quotes for bedding for her children.
“I said ‘I can try and get something together, some clothing for the kids and bedding’. The kids only had their school uniforms left.”
Ms Sullivan said everything else, as she understood it, was either fire- or smoke-damaged.
She appealed, through an Opotiki buy, sell and exchange Facebook page, for anyone with spare clothing and items for children to drop them off at the store, or Ashbrook School.
Since Monday’s fire groups such as Whakatohea Iwi and Social Health, Ashbrook School and Whakaatu Whanaunga Trust had worked together to gather what they could to help.
Ms Sutherland said she had spoken to people who were planning to obtain furniture for Mrs Wiki and the kids, too.
Opotiki News has also been told some donated items, such as children’s toys, bedding and clothes, have already been dropped off at the family’s house.
“I’m just glad all my children are safe and well and we want to say a big thank you to the community for coming to our aid when we needed it,” she said.