After getting her three children out of the family home as it became engulfed in flames, the next thing Lisa Coyle wanted to save was her mother's ashes.
A fire, believed to have started in a clothes drier, quickly spread and destroyed the home in Hikurangi, Northland, along with their possessions, about 9.30pm on Tuesday.
However, firefighters were able to save the family cat and retrieve Miss Coyle's treasured ashes.
She and her three youngest children were in bed watching television when 12-year-old Britney raised the alarm after smelling smoke.
"We jumped out of bed. I looked down the hallway and saw the fire and we just had to get out of there," she said.