By Jake Beleski
A Featherston fire crew intending to respond to a crash call on Western Lake Road on Sunday afternoon instead diverted to douse a house fire in Wallace Street, Featherston when they noticed it was alight.
Featherston Fire Chief Colin McKenna said when the fire crew spotted the blazing house, plans changed and that crew fought the blaze at 5 Wallace Street.
He said it was an abandoned house which was well alight and could not be saved. The absentee owner lives in the Wellington area.
The old wooden building was considered to be an abandoned house and all the firefighters could do was contain the blaze and dampen down the embers.
Mr McKenna said it was likely a suspicious fire and that he was working with fire safety investigators to confirm this. Because of the Featherston crew’s diversion, a Greytown crew took command of the crash on Western Lake Road, the same road on which two young men were killed in July 2014 when their car collided with a tree.
Sunday’s crash was also a single-vehicle collision with a tree, although Greytown’s Deputy Chief Fire Officer Nigel Bain said it was not at the same spot as the fatal crash from two years ago.
He said three people were transported to hospital for observation and with minor injuries.
Police were also present at the scene, and a police spokesperson said the crash happened about 17km from Featherston,.
Police were notified of the crash at around 2pm.
