With the temperature gauge reaching up to 30C in Hastings yesterday, the heat was on firefighters who attended a house fire on Miller St.
Neither the occupant of the house, nor the boarder that lives there, were home at 1.10pm when fire crews were called.
Hastings senior station officer Darren Clark said two crews from Hastings were the first to arrive to find the fire was involved at the rear of the house.
"At first it was unconfirmed if there were people inside so they searched the house but no-one was at home."
Police cordoned off the street between the Victoria and Albert St intersections for more than an hour and the Hastings firefighters were joined by Napier and the St John ambulance.
Mr Clark said it took about 10 minutes to douse the flames, which caused extensive fire damage at the rear of the house, and heat and smoke damage throughout.
"Heat and smoke do a lot of damage and the house is not able to be occupied," he said.
A neighbour said the main thing they could see was a lot of smoke coming out the windows of the house and said the home owner, who had lived there for at least 15 years would be devastated.
The owner visited the house yesterday after the fire was put out and a fire investigator was still working to determine the cause.