16 Mar 2016

One dead in house fire in Bay of Plenty

6:55 am on 16 March 2016

A person has died in a house fire in the Bay of Plenty overnight.

The farm cottage on Te Rahu Road in Poroporo, near Whakatane, was well ablaze when firefighters arrived shortly after midnight.

Fire Service northern communications shift manager Jarron Philips said firefighters then found someone, understood to be a man, in the lounge of the cottage.

An investigation into the cause of the fire will begin this morning.