In the wake of the near miss, a senior Dunedin firefighter says people should avoid charging devices while they are asleep.
The homeowner, who declined to be named, said the fire severely damaged every room apart from the front bedroom where he had been asleep.
He heard his smoke alarm going off just before 1.15am and saw the glow of fire in the hallway through the door.
Along with his grandson, he escaped through his bedroom window. His dog and cat also escaped.
"We were just so lucky," the homeowner said.
If his grandson had been sleeping in the room at the other end of the hall, rather than at the front of the house, he likely would have died.
His message to people charging electronic devices overnight was simple — "unplug them", the homeowner said.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand Senior Station Officer Pete Douglas, of St Kilda station, led the first crew to arrive at the "quick, fast, intense" fire, which was a tablet being charged in the kitchen area going into thermal runaway.
"Unless you really have to, we don’t recommend charging lithium-ion devices and leaving them when you go to bed," SSO Douglas said.
Living in a technologically driven society, people tended to see night as a good time to charge devices after running them low during the day.
However, it was better to charge them in the evening and finish charging them in the morning, SSO Douglas said.
"That way one of your senses is working while you’re awake — to let you know if something goes wrong while charging that device," SSO Douglas said.
Having working smoke alarms in sleeping quarters, hallways and all levels of a house was crucial and could save lives.
The smoke the tablet gave off was "thick, black and deadly", and had the tablet been charged in a bedroom without a smoke alarm, the fire could have had a very different, potentially fatal, outcome.
The fire was reported by neighbours who heard breaking glass.
Firefighters entered the building and quickly contained the fire to the kitchen using high-pressure hose reels.
It was fortunate Gib had been used in the house’s renovations, and it was a saving grace the kitchen area where fire started had a low fuel loading, SSO Douglas said.
