Minutes after an inferno ripped across a tinder-dry paddock behind her Christchurch home, Julia Walker thought she was going to die.
About 2.30pm yesterday hundreds of residents were forced out of their homes as a scrub fire raged across the western suburb of Hei Hei.
Two houses were razed and many people returned to smoke-damaged and soot-covered rooms.
Fifteen minutes before the fire started, the power went out, reportedly because of fallen power lines, and smoke began to billow around the area. It was not clear last night if that was the cause of the fire.
Ms Walker's home backs on to the paddock where the blaze took hold and she was one of the first to call 111.
"I got in my car and went to drive away but there was smoke billowing into the driveway and I couldn't see. Soon I couldn't breathe," she said.
"I thought I was going to die, that I would be burned alive in my car. I called 111 and said 'please help me'. They said to keep calm and wait for a gust of wind to clear the smoke.
"As if by magic, there was a gust and I then saw my neighbour driving so I tried to follow him. The smoke got really thick again and I couldn't see but I managed to get out of there somehow."
Ms Walker said the experience was horrific. "But I'm okay because I am alive."
She was able to return to her home just before 6pm and was speechless to find it still standing - thanks to her neighbours.
"We are amazingly lucky. The fire came right up to our windows.
"Our neighbours came and put out the flames, they saved our house. They had a hose and one of them ran over and broke all the wood down along the fence and took it away from the side of the house."
She said her house stank and some rooms were covered in soot. "The back fence is gone ... we can see the houses that burned down. One is demolished, even the car is singed. The other is a smouldering mess."
Maria Black, who also lives on Kaniere Ave, said the fire came right up to her fence, scorching the ground and leaving soot in her garage.
Cameraman Joe Morgan saw the fire cross a paddock in "10 to 15 seconds flat" before smoke filled the area and explosions were heard from a nearby house. "It ripped across an open paddock."
Ben Mulholland of Matangi St was also evacuated and joined hundreds of others at the cordon. "I could smell burning and I wondered if it was anything to do with the power cut, then about 10 minutes after that I could see lots of smoke and people were driving up and down the street and yelling, 'Get out, get out.'"
Bruce Hobbs lived in one of the destroyed houses. He tried to put the fire out with a garden hose, but the flames were too strong.
Through tears he told One News he had just seconds to escape the house as it exploded - the result of igniting petrol tanks and motorbikes.
Natalie Stack and Scott Garrick live next door and were evacuated with time only to get the children and dogs out of the house. Ms Stack's sister-in-law, Kylee Stack, said it appeared their home had only smoke damage.
"They are okay, from what we could see the fire has gone around their house ... it just missed."
A St John spokeswoman said no injuries had been reported.
- Additional reporting Morgan Tait
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