Fire safety starts in home

A fire alarm beeps as thick black smoke billows from a child's bedroom window, in one minute flames have engulfed everything inside, another 60 seconds and the windows explode.

After just two minutes the room is destroyed - walls blackened and warped, jagged glass hanging from the frame, toys, furniture and clothing destroyed.

Fortunately, this was just a drill. There was no child sleeping in the bed, no family to be evacuated and firemen were waiting to quell the blaze before it got out of hand.

This fire was a controlled experiment started inside a purpose-built facility at Hastings Fire Station, which will now be used to educate groups of school children about fire safety and hazards around the home.

"As far as we know it's a New Zealand first and other stations will be watching how it works for us," acting Hastings station officer David Tully said.

"Our core business is prevention and this is an initiative we came up with to make children more aware, we also encourage them to educate their parents."

The display home was built using materials and volunteer labour sourced by the Certified Builders Association.

"It's worth more than $50,000 and we got it all for free," Mr Tully said. "The Builders Association arranged everything - it has got a lounge, kitchen and two bedrooms.

"Both bedrooms are exactly the same so we can show the kids little Johnny's bedroom all set up with his toys and TV, then they will see the same room after little Johnny has been playing with matches."

Firemen will also work together with Safer Napier to address other issues around the home, using a range of props which may result in slips, trips and falls.

Finishing touches, such as a kitchen and large mailbox to be used as a meeting point, were to be installed before the home was opened to groups in about three weeks.

"It's part of a structured programme, we already show them the station and our gear and this [house] is an add-on to that."