Grammys, Summer Lorde skiing on lands the Hutt P5 two ASHBURTON
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Tuesday, Jan 28, 2014
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Child’s play again cause of local inferno The family that escape d from the Turton Street property on Sun day were shaken, but unharmed.
BY SUSAN SANDYS
SUSAN.S@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
d with re to a be rove tally set fi G n e in id c re c a fi d atic house ar-old chil A four-ye iggering this dram tr a lighter, ptember 2012. e S in t e Stre
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Sunday’s spectacular blaze was the second house fire caused by a child playing with a lighter in Ashburton in the past 16 months. The Turton Street blaze saw the home’s approximate 12 occupants escape unharmed, but most with only the clothes on their back. Fire investigators yesterday confirmed the blaze was started by a three-year-old playing with a lighter in an upstairs bedroom. The incident follows a four-year-old child accidentally setting fire to a bed with a lighter, triggering a dramatic house fire in Grove Street in September 2012 which also set alight a neighbouring house.
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Fire risk management officer Murray Cairns in Ashburton said yesterday the Tinwald fire was one of 199 house fires caused by underfive-year-olds playing with matches or lighters in New Zealand in the past five years. The rebuild cost for structure damage caused was $13.2 million and 47 of the fires resulted in injuries, two of them life threatening. About 60 per cent of the fires were started in bedrooms. The Turton Street blaze began in an upstairs bedroom, while the Grove Street blaze began in a bed next to a ground floor stairwell. Mr Cairns said matches and lighters were tools, not toys. “Keep all matches and lighters out of reach of very
young children. A child resistant lighter is not childproof, not even for a two-year-old,” Mr Cairns said. Many children started experimenting with fire from about three to six years of age. It could be linked to an attraction to the colour, light and energy released by a flame. The fire service would offer involvement in the Fire Awareness Intervention Programme to the Turton Street family for the three-year-old. The programme could offer resources such as colouringin exercises and videos which flagged the dangers of playing with fire.
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