A mother ran naked into the street with a daughter under each arm after her house caught fire while she was having a shower.
Lautau Mote, 32, and her family lost their home and almost everything they owned in the Christmas Eve blaze in Mangere, Auckland.
It was one of two fires in the city 14 hours apart that almost ended in tragedy - 87-year-old Mary Campbell was taken to hospital after being pulled unconscious from her smoke-logged home by firefighters early this morning.
Ms Mote was in the shower after finishing her Christmas shopping when she heard a smoke alarm go off about 2.50pm.
"She came out and saw smoke,'' said her sister-in-law Charmaine Tupou.
Immediately thinking of her sleeping daughters, aged three and 6 months, Ms Mote ran into the next room and put one child under under each arm.
"She ran outside naked and a neighbour grabbed the children and ran out to the road,'' Ms Tupou said.
Ms Motu then raced back inside and got a towel to cover herself.
Some tapioca was warming on the stovetop before the fire, said Ms Tupou.
Emergency services were scrambled after receiving about 50 111 calls from as far as Howick.
"Lots of people said that people were seen running, getting out of the house. Everyone was out by the time we arrived,'' said Fire Service shift manager Jaron Phillips.
Ms Motu's family of six were staying with relatives in Massey, swelling the number of people in a four-bedroom home to 12.
They faced Christmas with no presents but were grateful for blankets and clothes donated by neighbours.
"Everything inside is gone,'' said Ms Tupou.
Mr Phillips said the upper floor of the Motu's house was gutted. A fire investigator had been to the scene but the cause was not yet known.
The fire at Mrs Campbell's Mt Roskill home started in the ground-floor bedroom just before 5am today and spread quickly to the bathroom.
She tried to get out but the outside doors were locked and the keys were in her bedroom.
Waitemata senior fire safety officer Neville Trevarton said firefighters pulled her from the house and performed CPR.
She is in a stable condition at Auckland hospital.
Mr Trevarton said the incident should serve as a warning to others.
"She was extremely lucky to have survived. Here's the lesson, if you've got external doors which require keys, keep the keys in or adjacent to the doors.''
Fire officers are checking Mrs Campbell's electric blanket controller as part of their investigation.
At least one smoke alarm was activated by the fire.
Mrs Campbell, who has lived in the house for 20 years, had planned to spent Christmas Day with her daughter at Red Beach on Auckland's Whangaparaoa Peninsula, said neighbour Margaret Hobbs.
Instead her family was keeping a bedside vigil.
"She's a lovely bubbly lady,'' said Mrs Hobbs.
