Unable to leave their bubble neighbours watched on as a Christchurch house burned to the ground.
It's a timely reminder as more of us are home during lockdown not to be complacent.
It started as a small fire in the rear bedroom and became a raging inferno from which Samantha Foster and her family were lucky to escape.
Foster returned to her house to see the damage.
"At the start, it was quite little - it looked like it looked like it was containable," she told Newshub.
A gust of wind blew in a broken window spreading the fire throughout the three-bedroom Kāinga Ora home
"It just got worse and worse and we just realised in a matter of two seconds we had to get outta there now," said Foster.
The smoke alarm went off and the occupants escaped before firefighters arrived. Two suffered burns and smoke inhalation.
"I'm so glad everyone survived, especially my boy. It was very close," said Foster.
Kāinga Ora says it will support the family in any way it can as they come to terms with the effect the fire has had on them.
"Our staff are working with the family to find out how we can best support them into a new home as soon as possible. In the meantime, they have been offered temporary accommodation."
Neighbours say they felt helpless as the house burned, unable to leave their bubbles due to lockdown restrictions
"We were trying to see whether the people were okay but we couldn't talk to anyone because [of] lockdown so with the greatest difficulty we were just standing there watching everyone, such a disaster," said Rosh Ratnayake.
Day time house fires are rare, but with the lockdown, the risk has increased according to chief fire investigator Wayne Hamilton.
"Over this lockdown period we've had a large increase in unattended cooking where people have been distracted even from simple things like watching the 1pm bulletin," he told Newshub.
This extra time at home is an opportunity to check smoke alarms and create escape plans.
