Police are investigating a house fire which killed a six year old girl in South Auckland Monday 25.

Emergency services were called to the scene on Oranga Ave in Onehunga around 4:40pm to  find the second storey of a Housing New Zealand's house went ablaze.

Preliminary examinations by firefighters have revealed the fire started as a result of another child, aged three, playing with matches inside the house.

Smoke alarms were installed in the house, which were set off quickly – alerting a ten-year-old child to drag the toddler to safety while those in the house called 111.

Kaniva understand there were eight members in the house when the fire started.  

"It is very sad that the six year- old was unable to be rescued," says Fire Investigation and Arson's Peter Wilding.

"This tragic incident shows the importance of keeping matches out of children's hands and out of harms way."

Paramedics performed CPR on the girl, who was found deceased in a bedroom.

Mr Wilding says it had been over three years since a child died in a house fire in New Zealand.

A Tongan resident at Onehunga talked to Kaniva News and said he understands a Tongan family belong to the Tongan- Catholic Church of Assumption at Onehunga were staying in the house. They are from Lapaha in Tonga, he added.