A Bellevue couple woken by a smoke alarm were forced out of their house by a fire that destroyed the building last night.

There were multiple calls to the fire brigade at 11.47pm, but the single storey house in Queen Road was past saving by the time emergency services arrived, says Tauranga senior station officer Phil Price.

The fire was reported just before midnight on Wednesday. Photo: Andrew Campbell.

Fire fighters suspect the cause is related to the chimney. The residents had an open fire burning for about four hours during the evening while they dined and watched TV, before going to bed.

'When the smoke alarm went off they went to investigate and found the lounge was full of smoke,” says Phil.

'They suspected the chimney was blocked or something was blowing smoke into the lounge.

'They put a bowl of water on the fire, went to open the place up and found out the fire was coming out of cupboards around the chimney.

'They tried to control it with a garden hose. They were unsuccessful and they basically got out and called the fire brigade. The fire spread rapidly from that point, with it being an older house with timber framing and pinex walls.

'We know where the fire started because they actually saw it coming from there.

'The damage is such that we can't determine what happened.”

Three fire trucks attended the fire with firefighters finding the building almost totally involved on arrival.

They used three low pressure deliveries and breathing apparatus. They stopped the fire spreading to another house on the rear of the section joined to the burning building by a car port.

Earlier:

An empty shell is all the remains of a house in Bellevue after a fire tore through it overnight.

Tauranga Fire Brigade were called to the house fire on Queen Road just before 12am.

The house was well involved when firefighters arrived.

The brigade spent around three hours at the scene controlling the blaze and dampening down hot spots.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation.