Firefighters raced to Lock St, St Clair, about 3am yesterday, where they found a flat well ablaze.
The Housing New Zealand unit was severely damaged.
A fire investigator was at the scene yesterday, trying to determine the cause of the blaze.
A woman living in a neighbouring unit said it had smoke and water damage.
"I thought, ‘What the hell’s that?’," she said.
Police and an ambulance were at the scene at the time of the fire, she said.
She went outside and saw flames bursting through broken windows at the front of the flat.
"I was absolutely terrified."
She was screaming out for her cat, which later returned home unscathed.
That was not the case for many of her possessions.
Late yesterday morning, she and her daughter were examining the damage. She still had not slept.
However, she was lucky to be unharmed, she said.
