A Hamilton man is thanking a "wrong number" call from a former fireman for saving him and his wife from an electric heater fire. Barry Whitelaw was awakened about 6.45am yesterday by the phone call to his Dinsdale house.
"It was a guy who got the wrong number. After I got off the phone I smelled smoke and looked down the hallway and saw flames coming off the heater. It was just going pop, pop, pop."
Mr Whitelaw said he ran "stark, bollocking naked" to the heater, pulled the plug out of the wall and threw it on his front lawn. He then grabbed a jug of water to douse the flames.
The gratitude for the "wrong number" call turned to surprise when he rang back the mystery caller to thank him. The number belonged to Tauranga man Wayne Kennedy, who had coincidentally been a firefighter in Paeroa for eight years. Mr Kennedy said he had been trying to ring a radio station.
"I must have been a bit asleep and hit a wrong button," he said. "I've been to a heap of fires, but I've never stopped one this way before."
Mr Whitelaw said the series of events was "pretty freaky" and feared the situation could have been a lot worse had it not been for the opportune call.
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