The street at the centre of last month’s Porirua siege has been hit by drama again.
A house on Kokiri Crescent where gunman Pita Tekira fatally shot police dog Gazza on April 22 was gutted by a house fire began about 10.45pm on Sunday.
Fire service assistant area commander Gareth Hughes said when firefighters arrived, flames were coming out of all the windows on the house’s right-hand side.
Emergency services were called to the blaze on Sunday night. -ROSS GIBLIN
The blaze was extinguished by 11.30pm and no one was found inside the property, Hughes said
The cause of the fire was not yet clear. Fire safety investigators were on their way to the scene late on Sunday night.
“It’s very badly damaged, I’m sure there’s structural stability inside, but it’s very badly damaged at this stage,” Hughes said.
Seven fire engines and personnel from Porirua, Johnsonville and Wellington attended the blaze. Emergency services would maintain a presence at the site overnight.
Emergency services were at the scene of the blaze on Kokiri St late on Sunday night. -ROSS GIBLIN
A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said the burnt-out house was where the siege started on April 22, when Tekira shot Gazza before moving up the street to another house, where he eventually took his own life.
Hughes was unable to say whether the second siege house would be placed under guard following the blaze, referring questions to police.
The house’s neighbour said she was called outside by her husband on Sunday night, after hearing what she initially thought was the sound of fireworks going off.
When they got outside, they saw the neighbouring two-storey property was well ablaze.
The flames were so intense they had to jump the fence to a neighbouring property away from the fire, she said.
Her husband pulled their car out of their driveway away from the flames.
The neighbour said nobody had been in the house for a week, since the siege.
The street had been expecting something like this to happen to the houses involved in the siege, she said.
The damage viewed from a neighbouring property. – SAGATO NAFATALI
Police were door-knocking the street’s residents about midnight, as firefighters continued dampening down the house’s interior.
The house on Kokiri Street was gutted by the blaze. – ROSS GIBLIN
The blaze was brought under control on Sunday night. – ROSS GIBLIN
A neighbour said the house was the same property where police dog Gazza was shot. – ROSS GIBLIN
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