Dog saved our lives: Couple awake to fire on Epsom property

An Auckland couple say they were saved by their friend's barking dog as flames shot up the side of their house after fireworks sparked a fire in a hedge outside their home.

Camille Courtois and her partner Leda Taylor were in bed when they were woken by Homer, a dog they were looking after. When they got up to check on him, they saw flames coming up the side of their house on St Andrews Rd, Epsom, late last night.

"I've not experienced anything like it and I'm happy not to experience it again," Courtois said.

Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) confirmed the flames were ignited by fireworks.

Courtois said they heard some going off close to their house earlier in the evening but were initially not concerned.

"What really annoys me is that they ran away, they would've seen our hedge was on fire and our house was there, and they did nothing. It's beyond me," she said.

The fire grew quickly, she said.

"The flames just shot up, it was quite insane actually to see it".

Dramatic video footage taken by Taylor from inside their house shows large flames billowing up the side of their home, right outside their window on the second floor.

Taylor called 111 immediately then gathered Homer and their three other dogs in the van and drove away from the property. Courtois said she initially tried to put it out herself but this was "useless".

Fenz confirmed to the Herald that firefighters were called to the property on St Andrews Rd at 10.55pm on Wednesday after the hedge bordering their house caught alight from suspected fireworks.

Firefighters battled the flames for over an hour, before Courtois and Taylor were allowed back on the property with the dogs.

"It was a very sleepless night."

A few metres of the hedge is now gone and the front windows are cracked, but Courtois said she and Taylor were happy they and the four dogs were still alive.