Smoke alarm saves sleeping woman

Just a week after a mother and her two children escaped their burning house in Havelock North thanks to smoke alarms, another woman's life has been saved by the devices.

The woman, believed to be in her 60s, fell asleep in her lounge while cooking at her Te Aute Rd home, on the outskirts of Hastings, last night.

She awoke to the sound of the alarms, and a smoke-filled kitchen and lounge area. The Hastings Fire Service was alerted at 10.30pm.

Hastings station officer Michael Manning said a pot on the stove had caught fire. Without the smoke alarms the kitchen would most likely have caught fire, he said, and the house and the woman's life would have been in jeopardy.

Ultimately smoke damage was confined to the kitchen and lounge.

Mr Manning said the incidents had highlighted the importance of fitting smoke alarms and the latter incident had reinforced the importance of "keep looking while you're cooking". More than a third of house fires were caused by unattended cooking, he said.

The Fire Service would supply and fit fire alarms, and provide a home safety check upon request.