Fifteen minutes later the family had lost everything.
Eden Anderton and Devon Roman and their three children Dennis, 10, Dallas, 7, and Daxton Roman, 5, were all out of the house when the property caught fire on Wednesday night, the children’s aunt Tarla Anderton said.
Ms Anderton was pulling up in her driveway with her three children after heading out to buy rugby gear when she noticed smoke coming from their home on a farm in the Raymonds Gap area.
‘‘She opened the front door and the whole house just went alight ... she heard it go ‘whoof’, but she couldn’t see anything herself before she backed off,’’ Tarla Anderton said.
The children still in the car started to ‘‘freak out’’, as all they could see was their mother walking into the house, and then a burst of flames.
Within 15 minutes, they had lost everything.
Once those got too hot, they exploded, causing flames to completely engulf the house and send everything flying.
‘‘Right where they are, they get hardly any cell service ... she [Ms Anderton] had to leave the house and drive up the road to try and get reception to ring for help.
‘‘She was just out of her mind completely, she didn’t know what to do.’’
Ms Anderton managed to save all her dogs from the blaze, however all her son’s medical supplies were destroyed.
‘‘He’s non-verbal, he can’t walk, he’s had multiple surgeries — he’s got to have a specific bed, he uses [an infusion pump] — everything like that, its all gone.’’
Tarla Anderton said the family of five were currently staying with another worker in a property on the farm’s premises.
‘‘They’ve got absolutely nothing, they’ve only got the clothes that are on their backs pretty much.’’
A fire investigator was determining the cause of the fire, but the farmhouse was ‘‘really, really old’’ and [it] could most likely have been electrical, Tarla Anderton said.
Their extended family had started a Givealittle page to get the family of five back on their feet, which had raised just over $1000 yesterday.
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokeswoman said they received a call about the fire at 10.15pm on Wednesday.
They responded with two fire engines and a water tanker from the Otautau station. However, on their arrival, they noticed the fire was well ablaze and further resources were called in.
Further resources from Tuatapere, Blackmount and Nightcaps arrived and helped extinguish the fire.
The fire was extinguished by 2am yesterday, the spokeswoman said.
