Neighbours saw “a ball” of flame shooting up from a Napier home during a suspicious fire early Wednesday morning. 

Two fire crews attended the “well-involved” fire at a single-story home on Riverbend Rd in Onekawa. 

Fire and Emergency NZ communications centre shift manager Carlos Dempsey said everyone was accounted for with no injuries reported and a specialist fire investigator was attending to determine a cause. 

Napier senior station officer Bruce Botherway said the fire was being treated as suspicious and police were involved. 

Botherway said the fire itself was contained quickly and firefighters were on the scene for about 90 minutes. 

A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said he got up about 4.30am to go to the toilet and let his cat outside. 

When he opened the door he saw flames coming from his neighbour’s home.

“[The flames] were coming straight out in a ball,” he said.

“They did get quite high.”

He evacuated with his housemate and said the two people who were living inside the burning home also evacuated safely by the time he got outside.

“It is something different that is for real,” he said, of the early morning blaze.

He said firefighters were quickly on the scene and put out the fire.

He said it did not spread to any neighbouring homes including his own.

Three police vehicles were parked outside the property as of 9am.

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