RaveDash

New aerial footage of a charred multimillion-dollar beachfront mansion gutted by fire reveals the scale of the inferno which threatened neighbouring properties in Cooks Beach, Coromandel.

The $3.7 million home was wrecked on Saturday despite more than 40 firefighters and five trucks scrambling to stop the blaze.

Other homes on Endeavour Place were at risk from the fire as flames and smoke rose from the house, seen from as far as Whitianga, 3.5km away.

The drone footage shows the framing of the house is all that remains, with the roof caved in and ash and debris littering the floor. Only about two walls are still standing, with the rest of the charred wreck exposed to the elements.

It is understood the home was owned by Karim and Erica Hussona.

Erica Hussona posted a thank you message on the Cooks Beach Community Facebook page, thanking firefighters and the community for doing their best to battle the blaze, the Waikato Times reported.

Karim Hussona is the majority owner and group chief executive of internet service provider Compass NZ.

The 354sq m home was built in 2020 and has a council valuation of $3.1m, according to property website OneRoof.

The website estimated the two-storey home’s value at $3.7m.

Electric car ruled out as cause

Photos and videos on local radio station CFM’s Facebook page show the house was almost completely destroyed by the fire.

Commenters said the fire appeared to be contained but there had been some damage to a neighbouring property. Fire and Emergency confirmed another home had caught fire.

Another social media post suggested the fire had been started by an EV (electric vehicle) in the home’s garage.

But Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) investigator Ed Hopping said that was not the case.

“The investigation is still ongoing ... but I’m comfortable to put it out there in the world that the fire wasn’t a result of the battery in the car failing,” Hopping said.

He said the fire started within the home, while the car was parked outside the garage and was not plugged in for charging at the time.

“It’s just important to put out there that hybrid cars ... aren’t that vulnerable to fires,” Hopping said.

“And then in this instance, the car wasn’t plugged in and wasn’t inside the garage or the structure.”

Based on Fenz experience so far, he said, it isn’t common for fires to be started by electric vehicles in New Zealand.

Hopping said investigators would return to the Endeavour Place home to continue investigations into the fire’s cause. While that was ongoing he couldn’t say more.

‘I was at sea and noticed the heavy black smoke’

Whitianga local Brent Littlejohn told the Herald: “I was at sea and noticed the heavy black smoke coming from Cooks Beach. Thick black smoke is a bad sign so I headed over and that’s what I came across.”

Littlejohn said there were a lot of people around watching and helping where they could.

“The guttering on the house to the right of the picture started smouldering at one point but thankfully the fire service got on to that pretty quickly.”

Littlejohn said that when he left about 2pm, the fire crews had started to make a dent in extinguishing the fire.

“The Whitianga brigade arrived and set up a pump down on the beach to use seawater to extinguish it, they had it under control after the pump started.”

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r8bHnqmapJRjsLB6zbNmp7JfmLywt9JmmZ6Zk516p7XRnmScp6KkuqK6w56jZpyipLumecWopq2Zl5p6s7HVnpilq12osKK4xGamn2WSoa67sY6JkYuKd4qDhH%2BpfHuNgnNrhJGNqoF9bm5kdnw%3D