The occupants of a home at Hampstead were alerted to a fire in their kitchen in the early hours of the morning last Thursday.
Ashburton Volunteer Fire Brigade senior station officer Glenn Sowman said it was thanks to smoke alarms.
The cause of the fire, about 3am, had been a pot left on a stove, as the occupants either had either gone to sleep or forgot about it.
‘‘Smoke alarms definitely saved the day,’’ Sowman said.
It was a good reminder for people to check they had working smoke alarms in their homes.
The fire resulted in kitchen cupboards being singed.
Fire and Emergency NZ says unattended cooking is the leading cause of house fires in New Zealand.
As well as smoke alarms, FENZ recommends keeping a fire extinguisher and a fire blanket in kitchens.
It also recommends placing the lid of the frypan or pot or another large flat object such as a chopping board over the pan to starve the fire of oxygen, as well as never throwing water on to a frypan or pot that is on fire and never attempting to carry a burning frypan or pot outside.
