A devastating blaze tore through a three-storey apartment on Stephen Avenue, Henderson, on the night of April 18, 2025, displacing a family of seven Kiwi-Indians and causing significant damage to the property they had owned for just over a year.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) was called to the scene around 8.30pm. Nearly 50 firefighters, including crews from ten fire trucks and two ladder trucks, responded to the fire and worked through the night to contain it and prevent it from spreading to neighbouring properties. The fire was under control by 10.30pm. No injuries were reported.
The home belonged to Chirag Shah, 37, who was in Hamilton for a meeting at the time of the incident. Speaking to The Indian Weekender, Shah expressed concern over the financial toll the fire could take on his family.
“Losing so much will cost us a lot of money to build everything from scratch,” he said.
Nearly 50 firefighters are tackling a fire burning through a three-storey apartment block in West Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Lucy Xia
The family had purchased the home on April 12, 2024, and initially had it insured. However, due to a lapse in payment earlier this year, the insurance policy was no longer active at the time of the fire.
“At the beginning, the installments went through. We were making the payments from a different card. But the last few payments lapsed because of a card issue. The insurance company informed us, but we missed their email,” Shah explained.
According to Shah, two of his cousins were present in the home when the fire broke out. They were downstairs in the kitchen when smoke alarms were triggered, alerting them to a fire on the top floor.
“They realised that a mattress on the floor in one of the rooms had caught fire. They tried to put it out but couldn’t, so they called the fire department,” Shah recalled.
“My assumption is that the mattress caught fire and then spread to the wooden floor, which caused it to spread quickly.”
The top floor, which included three bedrooms, two bathrooms, wardrobes, and a storage area, was completely destroyed. The gallery and the ground floor also suffered heavy water damage.
A detailed investigation into the cause of the fire is underway, and a report from FENZ is expected soon.
In the meantime, the family is staying with friends while searching for rental accommodation. Chirag’s wife, Digisha Patel, has set up a Givealittle page to help support the family’s recovery efforts.
“We are so much stressed out as we might need to demolish the house and maybe we need to build this again,” the page read.
“ This house was on a $750k mortgage. When we entered into the house all our daily essentials like clothes, food, furniture got burned,” she added.
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