Fire destroyed a house at Raupunga, south of Wairoa this morning. All firefighters could do was dampen down the remains.

Fire and Emergency NZ despatched crews from Wairoa and Putorino to the blaze just after 6am.

“It was basically down on the ground when the first crew got there,” a senior firefighter said.

“The people who lived there were alerted by a passerby.

“They were in bed asleep at the time, and thanks to the passerby they got out safely.”

The house is about a kilometre up Putere Road off State Highway 2.

The senior firefighter said the blaze appeared to have started in the kitchen area/lounge room/dining room area.

“The fire spread fast through the old, three-bedroom, single storey family home,” he said.

“Only a couple of walls and part of the ceiling were left standing.”

The cause of the fire was not being treated as suspicious, he said.

“But how it got started will be looked into by a specialist fire investigator.”

The two men living there lost everything in the blaze.