A Lower Hutt family say a carbon monoxide detector saved their lives and is urging others to install one after it alerted them to a hidden fire beneath their home while they slept this week.
Annemarie van der Slot-Verhoeven said the alarm went off at around 2am on Wednesday despite there being no visible flames or smoke inside their Kelson home.
Earlier that evening, the family had noticed a smoky odour, but put it down to their wood burner and open windows.
"We have a CO detector and smoke alarms and before we went to bed, we checked that the batteries were all good and we couldn't see anything wrong."
Hours later, when they awoke to the alarm, she woke everyone up and opened all the windows in the house.
"The wood burner was out, and the charcoal was not doing anything, so we were like, why is there still CO in here?"
It wasn't until she stepped outside that she realised something was wrong.
"There was smoke coming from the deck and I was like, 'OK, there is something happening'," she said.
Her husband and son opened up the deck and began drenching the area while she rang emergency services, who arrived within 15 minutes and quickly located the source.
With no visible flames, firefighters detected extreme heat under the flooring, before opening up the deck to reveal a smouldering fire directly beneath the fireplace.
It had already burned through one structural joist and begun damaging another.
"They found it was around 200C underneath," van der Slot-Verhoeven said.
"Luckily it didn't catch fire, it was just smouldering. It seems that we were right on time to detect it."
Fire and Emergency New Zealand said fires could often smoulder out of sight, meaning households may not realise there is a problem.
In some cases, smoke alarms may not activate because there is little or no smoke present. Photoelectric smoke alarms rely on a light beam, which is only triggered when smoke particles interfere with it.
"While a CO detector did provide an early warning in this case, this is rare, and we would usually see smoke present even when a fire is smouldering," a spokesperson said.
The agency said it is important to have working smoke alarms in every bedroom, living space, and hallway.
Fire and Emergency NZ also reminded homeowners to regularly maintain wood burners, including having chimneys swept annually — typically before winter — and ensuring older systems are checked and serviced.
"During winter, we see heating related fires increase by 29%, therefore it is important that people keep any flammable objects, like couches, clothes, and beds at least a metre from heaters, wood burners and open fires."
In Europe, carbon monoxide detectors are widely used. In the United Kingdom, it is a legal requirement to install one in any room containing a solid fuel appliance such as a wood burner.
Van der Slot-Verhoeven hoped her family's experience could be a wake-up call for New Zealanders.
"Some people are aware to have a CO detector when you use gas, but I think it's really important when you have a wood burner in your house," she said.
"It's basically saved our lives, and also made it less worse because we detected it early before it really caught fire."
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