A person has died in a house fire in Auckland's Avondale overnight.
Police say the person was found deceased inside the property on Blockhouse Bay Rd. Emergency services were notified about the blaze shortly after midnight.
Local residents told 1News a man rented the unit that caught and lived there alone.
“I have no idea what happened, I just heard a big bang in the night and then saw cop cars this morning," one neighbour who wanted to remain anonymous said.
Another neighbour, who preferred to stay anonymous, woke up to the smell of smoke and her son telling her to get out of the house.
“It was quite frightening, the houses are so close together I thought it would spread.”
“The smell was so terrible.”
The son and daughter-in-law then ran across to the units adjacent to the blaze and called emergency services, before helping other nearby residents evacuate.
Police said surrounding residents were evacuated as a precaution.
They say they're working with Fire and Emergency investigators to establish the cause of the fire.
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