"I heard smashing windows down the street and at first I thought it was a fight. Then I realised it was a house fire."
She said all of the occupants were out of the house by this point and emergency services were on their way.
Fire spreads through a home in Puriri Cres, Hillcrest, Rotorua. Photo /Supplied
"A few other neighbours were out on the street. There were long flames out the windows, we could see it spreading to the far side of the house."
She said there had never been a house fire on her street during the three years she had lived there.
"I do not know the people who live there but they have been there for some time too. I do not know if it was a Housing New Zealand house or if it was rented privately."
