A woman trapped inside a burning Remuera home this morning said the four people sleeping in the house when the blaze broke out are lucky to be alive.
Ruth Teh said she woke up in the early hours of the morning to screams from her flatmate.
She opened the door and saw flames roaring through the upstairs storey of the Rotomahana Terrace house.
She shut her bedroom door to keep the blaze out and put her head out of the upstairs window for air.
"[It was] really scary...thinking you are trapped and can't get out. I tried to get air out of the window," she told NZME News Service.
"We are lucky we're still alive."
A blown-out window at the back of the house - where Ms Teh was trapped - is now blackened from the blaze.
She was one of two people evacuated from the fire at about 3.15am this morning - the other was not breathing and was taken to hospital in a critical condition.
Two others had self-evacuated, including homeowner Steve Lian who said the "scary" ordeal happened very fast.
After being woken by a flatmate Mr Lian ran downstairs to wake up the fourth occupant of the house and attempted to go back upstairs with water to put out the flames.
"But when I got the water the smoke was already too thick and I couldn't go up....the two on the second storey were trapped up there. It just happened so fast," he said.
The flatmates were all worried about their friend in hospital, he said.
He said he would have to stay with friends for an indefinite period of time until the damage was fixed.
Downstairs flatmate Akira Kubota said the roar of the fire sounded like an animal or thunder above him.
He was alerted to the blaze by Mr Lian, who he originally thought was an intruder, hammering on the door.
"At the time I was scared, I was hiding," he said.
Neighbour Kirsty Craig said she woke up to a massive bang caused by the blaze and saw Ms Teh leaning out of the upstairs window, screaming for help.
She called emergency services and ran around the block in her nightie to get the street number.
"She was screaming at me, 'I can't get out, I can't get out.' Her head was out the window trying to breathe.
"I heard the bang and thought it was a car crash it was so loud."
Mt Wellington senior station officer Bob Morrison said the unconscious woman was found in the bathroom.
It is suspected her bedroom is where the fire broke out, and she had to take shelter in the bathroom as she tried to make her way outside.
She was carried outside by two firefighters and CPR was performed.
The rescue took a matter of minutes from the time of the call but there was still damage to about 40 per cent of the house, he said.
Ms Teh's attempt to keep the smoke out by closing her bedroom door was a move that might have saved her from being found unconscious as well.
"There were no smoke detectors in the house, they would have been a big warning.
"[Closing the door] kept the air fresh," Mr Morrison said.
"We would like to promote the fact that if you are in that situation you should do that."
St John ambulances attended the scene about 3.20am and three patients were taken to Auckland Hospital.
An Auckland Hospital spokeswoman said the unconscious woman is still in a serious condition but the other two patients have since been discharged.
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