A young couple are lucky that more damage was not caused to their Featherston rental home after a lounge fire on Saturday.
Featherston Fire Brigade were called to the Bethune St house about 6am.
Fire chief Colin McKenna said the fire started in the chimney, and then spread to the walls and roof of the lounge.
"The damage was done only really to the lounge," he said.
"With the smell of the smoke and everything else it makes it uninhabitable for a while."
Mr McKenna said the couple were "very lucky" the fire was not worse.
"They managed to give us a call and kept the damage to the lounge area," he said.
Mr McKenna said the couple had closed the fire "right down" before they went to bed about 1.30am.
He emphasised the importance of working smoke alarms.
"Keep your fire alarms operational - that's all there is to it ... check the batteries regularly," he said.