Firefighters are scratching their heads about the cause of an explosion that blew apart a refrigerator in a Gate Pa home overnight.

Greerton firefighters were called to a two-bedroom unit on Scott Street at 1.16am by police after a fridge exploded blowing out a sliding door and windows of the home.

JD Smith shows how the fridge door struck the stove.

'The fridge had exploded,” says station officer Steve Wright.

'The door was completely off, the sides of the fridge were distorted, and the sliding door was out of its frame and a couple of other windows had been blown out of their frames as well.

'So there was quite a pressure wave created by something, and we are still unsure of what has caused it.”

Firefighters were called to a Gate Pa home where a fridge had exploded overnight.

Steve says the occupants, two men in their 40s and 60s, were not found to be undertaking any sinister activity by police.

The Energy Safety Service has been notified and fire safety will be investigating today.

'We are still at a bit of a loss as to exactly what has caused the explosion.

'It appears to be something they have put in the fridge before they have gone to bed, and it has reacted violently and caused the explosion,” says Steve.

'We're guessing at the moment. There was nothing obvious there, we were looking around and couldn't see any major cause. We'll leave it to the experts and see what they say.”

The fridge was completely destroyed by the explosion.

The two men in the unit, JD Smith and Paul Collinson, were asleep in their beds when there was a loud ‘Kaboom'.

The blast flung the fridge door against the stove, buckling it and smashing the oven handle and popping out all the stove elements.

The scotia is separated from the ceiling panels right round the kitchen/living area, and most of the windows and frames have been blown out.

The ranch slider and glass in the back doors are both blasted out and the window in Paul's room is also gone.

'We've got ten windows out of their frames,” says JD.

'But it left the TV alone. All food in the fridge got blown to pieces. There was no flames at all, it was just a loud explosion. We are alive that's the main thing.”

The force of the blast also destroyed the windows.

The fridge was bought from the Salvation Army about a year ago, says JD.

Tauranga fire safety officer Ken McKeagg has no idea what caused the blast.

'It's an interesting scenario," says Ken.

'The police explosive experts might find something, but these guys reckon they had noting in their fridge other than food. It must have been pretty volatile food.

'It's cleaned out their cupboard, knocked the stove from the wall. It's been one hell of an explosion.

'If the fridge wasn't bulged out like it was, I would have though it came from the exterior. But the fridge is bulged out like a little bubble, so it's come from there outwards.

'I will think about it for a while but I'm not going to come up with anything unless they tell me what was in the fridge, I mean really tell me.”

Greerton firefighters were called out again at 3.42am when people had piled up timber in two places on the footpath at the Hampton Terrace/Fraser Street intersection and set it alight.

'They also smashed up the bus stop across the road,' says Steve.

'They would have used quite a bit of force to break the 10mm thick laminated glass. There was a brick nearby. They caused several thousand dollars damage to the bus stop.”