Neighbours fear a father may have died in a caravan fire while his son slept in the house next door.
Police have confirmed one person died in a fire that engulfed a caravan in the Christchurch suburb of Redwood early on Monday morning.
Emergency services were called to the blaze on Te Maru Place at 12.39am. The person was found in the caravan parked in the driveway of a house.
Detective Senior Sergeant Colin Baillie said an investigation was under way.
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“The death is currently being treated as unexplained,” he said.
Ram Karki, who lives just over the road, said he was one of the first on the scene.
He heard a loud bang and thought someone was breaking into his car, but went back to bed when he saw no-one was there.
Soon after, he heard a second loud bang and looked outside to see a fire across the road.
“I just opened my curtain and saw a big fire.”
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/Stuff
Ram Karki says he heard two loud bangs, and looked out his window to see a fire across the road.
He ran over as another couple was trying to open the property’s locked gate. Karki jumped the fence and frantically knocked on the door of the home.
“We started yelling fire, fire.”
It was a few minutes before a young man answered, he said. The caravan in the driveway was well ablaze by then.
Karki said the man, believed to be in his early 20s, told him it was only him and his dad at home.
The man went to his dad’s bedroom, but no-one was there, Karki said.
“We couldn’t find him, so we realised he must be in the caravan.”
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/Stuff
Emergency services found a deceased person inside a caravan destroyed by the fire.
Amanda Panfilow, who lives a couple of houses down, said she had met the residents recently at a neighbourhood barbecue.
The young man who lived there was in “complete shock” following the fire, and she tried to comfort him, she said.
“We heard a bang and I could see big flames … just horrific.”
A scene guard was in place overnight and police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand investigators would carry out a scene examination on Monday morning.
