Residents in central Auckland have been rocked by a loud explosion on Tuesday morning.
The blast sparked a raging house fire in New Windsor just after 6am.
"I just thought that we could have had an asteroid hit the earth, or something like that. I heard people screaming - about three or four voices screaming," neighbour Hemant Pareek told Newshub.
"The police officer came in, said 'let's get the hose' but the fire was blazing really fast."
Newshub reporter Grace Cocker lives on the Mary Dreaver St, where the blast happened.
"Just after six this morning our entire house violently shook, it sounded like a massive bang. We were trying to figure out what happened, raced downstairs, went out the front - we couldn't see anything so we all went back to bed," she said.
"About 20 minutes later we heard constant fire trucks, constant sirens. Then it all went quiet."
Four crews and 16 firefighters battled the blaze, a fire service spokesman says.
A build-up of gas, ignited by a light switch, could have been the cause of the explosion, the fire service says.
A woman has been taken to Middlemore Hospital in a serious condition and a man has been taken to Auckland Hospital with moderate injuries, police say.
The house was engulfed by fire and has been destroyed.
Several homes on Mulgan St were also evacuated, and police set up cordons in the area.
Newshub.
