The National Fire Authority has hit out at people filming blazes for social media instead of calling for help.
Such actions can cause dangerous delays in emergency response, said CEO Puamau Sowane
The comments follows two fires on Tuesday morning resulted in the destruction of three homes and a building belonging to Auto World Trading.
“We continuously ask members of the public to call 910, our toll-free emergency line, at the first sign of a fire but we still see people go live on social media before calling us,” Mr Puamau said.
“The fire at Auto World was first sighted just after 6am, but our Command Centre received the first call at 6.38am.
“Every minute a fire burns, it doubles in size, which is why I am making this plea.”
He said that investigations found that the Caubati fire was caused by a child playing with matches.
