Milton Volunteer Fire Brigade Deputy Chief Fire Officer Robbie Philip said the fire was fully involved in one room of the house when crews arrived about 10.30am, but firefighters managed a ''good save''.
''From where it was at when we pulled up, our guys did a good job to contain it to the area it was contained to,'' he said.
''It wasn't far from flashover point - the whole thing was just going to explode.''
Neighbours on both sides of the house at the corner of Abercrombie St and Chaucer St said they saw no flames as the house burned.
But smoke that looked like a thick fog, that at times reduced the visibility to about a metre, wafted from the house for an hour as crews extinguished the fire inside.
Three crew entered the house to search for occupants, but the family of five who live at the address were not at home.
The fire was contained to a room at the front of the house, Mr Philip said.
''It was going quite well in there, it filled the rest of the house with smoke,'' he said.
''It was pretty thick.''
The whole house was scorched and smoke damaged, he said.
A fire investigation was under way yesterday.
