Boy, 8, critical after fire in van (NZ Herald 5:00AM Wednesday July 09, 2008By Beck Vass)

An 8-year-old boy was last night fighting for his life with severe burns after a gas stove being used to heat a campervan set his bedding on fire as he slept early yesterday.

Firefighters were called to Kirkwood Pl in the Auckland suburb of Avondale, where the campervan was parked outside the home of a family friend of the boy's mother, at 4.22am.

The boy's mother put the fire out using an extinguisher and grabbed her son and a younger daughter who had also been asleep in the vehicle, before calling emergency services.

The boy was to undergo surgery in Middlemore Hospital yesterday. A hospital spokeswoman said he was in a critical condition with burns to 20 to 25 per cent of his body.

Fire Safety Officer Russell Dickson told the Herald the family had travelled to Auckland in the campervan for school holidays.

It appeared the boy's bedding had fallen from his sleeping area above driver's area of the van on to the stove and caught alight, burning the boy.

It was very cold and they've used the stove to warm the van up and they've had an accidental fire."

Mr. Dickson said he did not want to apportion blame as the fire was an accident, but issued a warning for people to have smoke alarms in any sleeping area.

Damage was confined to the stove area and bedding and the fire was out by the time firefighters arrived.

However, it could have been much worse, Mr. Dickson said. "Without the fire extinguisher she possibly wouldn't have been able to get to the boy. The fire extinguisher was critical but the use of smoke alarms would have prevented the fire being even at that flaming stage.

"It is understood the family had collected the vehicle from Napier.

Mark Boberg, managing director of Adventure Rentals, which owns the campervan, said campervan users should know that stoves were for cooking only, not for heating.