Rhys Thomas was snoozing in front of the television, and his mother, Judy, was asleep in bed when smoke alarms in their Pine Hill house sounded about 10.15pm.
They woke to find their house filled with smoke, glowing orange inside and one entire wall on fire.
After escaping, they realised the unoccupied house next door was on fire and the flames had spread to their house.
Mrs Thomas was treated for smoke inhalation and shock, but the pair were otherwise uninjured.
The fire was a lesson on how essential smoke alarms were, fire safety officer Barry Gibson said yesterday after spending the day inspecting the two houses.
"The main thing for everyone to realise is the speed of fire. You don't get any second chances. Another couple of minutes and this would have been a different story altogether."
Little was left of the villa, while the back wall and roof space of the Thomas' house were significantly damaged.
"It would not have been much longer before [the Thomas'] house would have been fully involved."
Every house should have working smoke alarms at least and a sprinkler system would be an excellent addition.
In a situation where an owner lived away from the house - the owner of the burnt villa lived in Queenstown - an inter-connected smoke alarm system monitored by an alarm company was recommended.
Six appliances and up to 24 firefighters spent 12 hours at the scene.
Fighting the fire was difficult because the house did not have easy access from the road, there was little room to move around its exterior and strong winds fanned flames on to the next-door house.
After spending most of yesterday investigating the remains of the house, Mr Gibson said he did not believe the fire was started by fireworks, or that it was suspicious.
He was looking at several different "situations", but the fire definitely started inside the house.
The four-bedroom villa had burned so well because it was constructed mainly of kauri.
The fire had the appearance of a huge fireball because by the time it burst through windows it had already consumed a massive amount of fuel inside and burned through to the cellar under the house, effectively creating "a big bonfire", Mr Gibson said.
Police and community watch officers closed SH1 at Pine Hill for two hours while the fire was contained, but the emergency still attracted crowds of people on foot.
They gathered along Fea St and SH1, and vantage points around Maori Hill.
One person said they spotted the blaze from Portsmouth Dr and came over for a closer look.
Police said they received 111 calls about the fire from as far away as Waverley.
