'I started yelling': Heroic tradie springs to action during Ponsonby house fire

A house fire in the pricey Auckland suburb of Ponsonby could have become a tradgedy today. 

Luckily, it broke out right next to a construction site where Jeremy Lodder was working. He spoke to rova news about the moment he realised something wasn’t right:

“I saw smoke and some flames. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was but I knew it was a fire, and then I realised it was quite close to the building site.

So I was like, sh*t, that’s not good. I stopped my machine, jumped out, and as I was running over to exit the site to go and check, I saw the site supervisor and notified him to call the fire brigade.

As he was waiting for emergency services to arrive, Jeremy started raising the alarm, and it soon became obvious that there was someone inside the burning house.

“I just started yelling 'Fire, is there anyone there?' I was knocking on the windows to see if anyone was inside. Then, after about two or three minutes of me yelling and knocking, a guy came out.”

With the fire taking hold on one of central Auckland’s many narrow residential streets, Jeremy and his workmates then helped open up space for the six arriving fire trucks, but only after making sure everyone on-site was accounted for.

“We all went to the emergency assembly area. Then we helped move vehicles and cone off the area before the fire brigade came. Everyone was off-site and in the right place once they arrived, and there was enough room for all the vehicles to get in as well.”

So remember, next time you’re getting a bit grumpy at the noisy construction site over the road, you never know when having a bunch of people well-versed in health and safety protocols could save your life.