But as these photos show, it was never going to work.
When firefighters arrived, the house was engulfed in flames. The homeowner was being comforted by a neighbour.
But firefighters had one simple message: "Just get out."
The blaze at about 10am last Thursday may have been caused by crystals hanging in a window.
Fire and Emergency NZ senior advisor risk reduction and specialist investigator, Bruce Irvine, said the cause was still undetermined, but light reflecting through glass crystals hanging in the window could have started the fire.
“People need to understand it is rare, but it is realistic if you dangle glass in windows or if you have mirrors in front of windows, a lot of people don’t think of that,” he said.
She discovered the fire in the master bedroom of the Waddington home, near Sheffield, after hearing glass breaking.
The house did not have smoke alarms.
When she could not put the fire out, she left. A neighbour called 111.
Irvine said the "the biggest issue" was having no smoke alarms.
She was only alerted by the windows breaking. A smoke alarm would have warned her earlier.
Irvine estimated the fire had been going for about 1-2min and was hot enough to break the glass.
Irvine said, when evacuating a house during a fire, closing the doors can save the home.
"Every closed door will give us as firefighters 15min before it breaks through. That is significant to our response time."
Fire crews from the Sheffield, Springfield, Darfield, and Kirwee stations were called to the blaze.
