Firefighters this morning were preparing to tear the roof off the charred remains of a South Auckland property in which one person died overnight, saying they weren't yet 100 per cent sure no-one else was in there.
At 3.20am today, fire services were called to a burning property on Papakura-Clevedon Rd in the suburb of Papakura.
After around two hours struggling to extinguish the blaze, one body was found inside.
Fire Service commander John Booth said fire trucks from numerous regions of Auckland rushed to the large fire.
"On arrival the fire service found the house behind me well involved in fire to the point where it was almost collapsed," he said.
"We were advised by the occupants next door that there was the possibility that the occupant to this house could still be in there and unfortunately we found the deceased probably about half-an-hour or so ago."
Commander Booth said the effort this morning recruited fire trucks from Clevedon, Papakura, Manurewa, and Ōtara.
The Auckland firefighters assembled outside the property at 5am were preparing to examine the destroyed property.
"What's happening now is we're slowly pulling the roofing iron off the property and still searching," Commander Booth said.
"We still can't be 100 per cent sure that there's nobody else in this property, and will be doing a joint investigation into the cause, with the police, as day break comes."
An eye witness told 1 NEWS the property was a barn converted into accommodation, which collapsed during the fire.
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