Auckland CBD resident describes ‘terrifying’ fire in neighbor’s apartment

An Auckland resident has described the terror of seeing flames melting his neighbor’s apartment and destroying everything in their path.

Wayne Bridge-Smith, 65, was lying in bed in his Freeman’s Bay apartment early this morning when he began to hear glass breaking through the wall that separated him from his next door neighbor’s two-story apartment.

“I opened my curtain and I could see flames three stories high to the ceiling, my God … then it broke out and the flames were about ten feet in the garden and up to the apartment above.

“The apartment upstairs is completely melted, everything is gone.”

The fire in the four-story Freeman’s Bay apartment building on Hayden St broke out before 5:58 a.m. when emergency services were called.

“The fire department came so fast, my gosh, they’re fantastic guys. I don’t know how they got in, they just broke in. Extraordinary guys,” Bridge-Smith said.

Within minutes of arriving at the scene, firefighters were able to take control of the fire.

“They were incredibly fast. All the neighbors had their fire hoses to try to contain it.”

Bridge-Smith said the speed at which the fire spread was terrifying.

“When you see this happen in front of your eyes, it’s terrifying.”

“My wall was on fire, there were no flames in my room, but the heat was incredible.”

He said there were some ideas about what fire looked like that “sounded strange,” but that he wasn’t willing to talk about that further.

A spokesman for Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) said all residents had been accounted for and there were no reports of injuries.

Fire investigators have been notified so they understand the cause of the fire.

Bridge-Smith said he had been cleared to return to his apartment, but the smell was almost unbearable.

“It’s that burning gummy trash smell.”

He said the family had been taken to the hospital as a precaution.

“They were mentally quite distressed.”