New Zealand Rugby
Mehrtens' family survives house fire
ESPN Staff
July 26, 2013

Ex-All Black fly-half Andrew Mehrtens' life in Sydney has not started well after his house caught fire on Thursday.

Mehrtens has not been a resident of Sydney for long having just moved to the Australian city but he will now stay temporarily with old Wallabies rival George Gregan while the damage to his property is repaired.

Mehrtens was out for dinner with his wife Jacqui when he got a call from their babysitter called to say one of their bedrooms was filled with smoke. And despite Mehrtens' best efforts to tackle the blaze when he arrived back at his house, the fire-fighters soon took over.

"I was busy trying to chuck water around upstairs and you feel like in that situation you can man up and do something but at the end of the day you just got to get out of the way and let the professionals do their job," Mehrtens told ONE News Australia.

Reports in the New Zealand press say the blaze did "not cause significant damage" with Mehrtens' family unharmed. He added: "I did say to someone it's an expensive and excessive way to get a photo of your kids with firemen isn't it."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd

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