Crib owners are being urged to install smoke alarms after five people were treated for smoke inhalation following a house fire on Otago Peninsula early yesterday.
Emergency services were called to the Carnock Rd, Harwood, property shortly before 6am, following reports of a small fire under the house.
Portobello Station Officer Jamie Ramsay said the occupants - an adult and four youths - were treated for smoke inhalation by St John staff.
It appeared something had fallen out of the open fire, landed on carpet and "slowly smouldered away before burning through the floor".
"Slowly, but surely, it filled the whole house up with smoke, and it was just lucky that an occupant woke up and alerted the others."
The occupants were taken to Dunedin Hospital as a precaution, as "they were coughing pretty badly", Mr Ramsay told the Otago Daily Times.
The smoke-filled house sustained little damage apart from two burnt wooden floorboards, but "it was a photo finish".
"It was not far away from disaster, because you don't normally wake up when you have a smoke-logged house."
The incident at the property, which is owned by a Dunedin family, should serve as a reminder to fit working smoke alarms in cribs, he said.
