The Fire Service says two children aged nine and five were home alone in a south Auckland house when a fire broke out this morning.
The children called emergency services and escaped unscathed.
The fire broke out just before 10am in a rear bedroom at a home in Clover Park and soon spread to other bedrooms, but the Fire Service says the two children did everything right.
"They've alerted us, called the Fire Service here and they've vacated or evacuated the house and waited for us opposite the house so that we could deal with them and get the correct information out of them when we arrived," says Papatoetoe senior station officer Bob Morrison.
Nearly half the home was damaged but the two children are safe and well.
Pukekohe Acting Senior Sergeant Danny Hodson says police are investigating whether a family member was home with the children, but says it "looks unlikely".
The children's mother was at work when the fire broke out but is not under investigation.
3 News spoke to the mother who said emotionally she'd been up and down.
She said it looked like it was an electrical fault in their bedroom that caused the fire.
A 68-year-old man has been summoned to appear in Manukau District Court where he'll face charges of leaving a child under the age of 14 without reasonable supervision.
3 News
