And since the community began to rally behind them, Dan and Julie Gordon say they have been overwhelmed by the support they have received.
Mr and Mrs Gordon and their children, Noah (11), Dani (9) and Eva (7), had to start from scratch again.
All that was saved were a few family photographs on a computer, a few items of clothing that were being packed for Noah and Dani's upcoming camping trip, and some kitchen items.
Everything else was lost in the fire.
Yet the children were happy and the family was comfortable on Sunday night, thanks, they say, to the ''utterly incredible'' support from people they do not know how to thank.
The Gordons do not know the Dunedin woman who took her Milton rental property off the market to make it available for them.
They do not know many of the people who have dropped off money and food to Mr Gordon's parents, where the family stayed for the first three nights after the fire.
On Sunday night the Gordon family met the Otago Daily Times at the rental property that is now their home to speak about the support they had received from across the district.
Mr Gordon said each of his three children had been taken care of.
''I was picturing moving in here and I thought if we had some mattresses on the floor for the kids and some warm blankets, we'd be all right,'' Mr Gordon said.
''But then we got here [Saturday] morning and by [Saturday] night everybody had beds, duvets, everybody had blankets and pillows.
''There was a couch to sit on, there's a table over there.''
The pantry was full, Mrs Gordon said. The furniture had been donated. The bathroom had even been stocked with toiletries.
A washing machine and chairs were on the way yesterday. Businesses had heard of the fire and would not let them pay full price, she said.
''Half of this stuff, we don't even know where it came from,'' she said.
''We have had to buy very little to set ourselves up.
''The support is overwhelming, the support is amazing. It was four days ago that we lost everything.''
Mr Gordon was home, his right foot in a plaster cast with a partially ruptured Achilles tendon, on Wednesday when he looked out the kitchen window and noticed smoke.
His wife was away picking up the children from school. The Milton Volunteer Fire Brigade arrived about 3pm.
Mrs Gordon and the children arrived shortly afterwards.
Noah said he was scared when he arrived home and saw his home burning.
''I thought if we had been in there at night, if we had been asleep, we would have been as good as dead, because it just went so fast. It was scary.''
Fire trucks and tankers from Milton, Balclutha and Waihola and 22 firefighters attended, but strong winds hampered the effort and about 12 hours later the house was all but gone.
Mrs Gordon said she had told her children a number of times that as long as they had each other, everything would be all right. She never thought it would turn out this way.
When she returned to the house after the fire, standing in the burned out hallway that had been dedicated to her children was ''the hardest part'', she said.
''We had made the hallway a celebration of our life. So it was just literally canvases of all the kids' lives, from when they were babies, all the way through.
We had made it a document of their lives. It was their stories with family and the dogs and everything. I think that was probably the hardest.
''It's gone. It's all destroyed.''
The house was fully insured and the family planned to rebuild on the property, Mr Gordon said.
