KEY POINTS:
A four-year old girl who saved her household from a fire earlier this month has been given an award by the Fire Service.
Natalea Greenslade was in bed in a rented house in Devonport on June 2 when she awoke to the smell of smoke at 3am, the North Shore Times reported.
Her mother, Emma Greenslade, a flatmate and his grandmother were all sleeping.
Natalea went into her mother's room and woke her.
Ms Greenslade said her flatmate saw the fire in the lounge and told everyone to go outside.
The fire, believed to have started by candles that were not properly extinguished, damaged a bookshelf, a wall and curtains.
Ms Greenslade said her flatmate used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire, but it re-ignited when he opened the back door. He then put it out with a garden hose.
The house had a smoke alarm but it was disabled.
Fire safety education officer Nella Booth says the fire had reached a crucial stage. If Natalea had not woken up, the consequences would have been a lot worse, she said.
"If the curtains had fully caught fire they would have dropped on the floor and ignited the carpet."
Ms Booth said statistically young children respond last to a fire.
"It's not often a young child wakes the family up."
She presented Natalea with a certificate for "bravely alerting her family to a fire".
- NZPA
