Everything lost by family in house fire

Paige Burrow woke up at 4am, as she always does, to feed her 10-week-old baby, when she saw a ‘‘massive, orange glow’’ outside.

She ran to wake her husband Andrew, and they got the family to safety.

Outside, Andrew thought he could move his work truck before the house took hold, to make way for fire trucks.

He had just got into the living room, when the windows exploded from the heat of the flames and fire took over the house.

‘‘Next thing you know, the window went ‘boom’,’’ he said.

Christmas presents and all the belongings of the Blenheim family were lost when their home was gutted by fire. They have been living in the rental for about two years.

Five fire crews were called to the house on Glendale Place just after 4am yesterday and Fire and Emergency later reported a ‘‘total loss’’.

Crews spent one hour fighting flames, and started the ‘‘dampening down’’ process at 5.15am. The last truck left just after 7am.

Fire risk management officer Greg Mclean was at the property investigating the cause of the fire yesterday and said the fire was not suspicious.

The cause was being determined, he said.

About 9am yesterday, Burrow said he was recovering from the shock.

‘‘We left everything in there. Literally everything is gone. My ID, my keys, my phone, my wife’s phone, kids stuff,’’ Burrow said.

‘‘What we have is either what we’re wearing, or what is in the car, but we can’t get into the car because the keys are in the house. The main thing is that we’re all right. We can just rebuild, carry on, start from scratch,’’ he said.

Paige’s father Mike Johnston said the family was ‘‘pretty shaken up’’. They would stay at his house for the meantime.