Occupants of a Santoft house were woken by the sound of explosions on Friday morning when their laundry caught fire.
The sounds were caused by aerosol cans bursting in the heat, Bulls fire chief Brian Carter said.
Mr Carter said the occupants of the house were woken about 3.30am by the "explosions" and went downstairs to find the laundry was on fire.
"They managed to extinguish it externally by putting a hose in through the window and extinguished it, which is a very, very , very good save," he said.
The fire started through an electrical fault and melted the top of the washing machine.
Because the laundry was closed off from the rest of the house, the smoke alarms inside the house did not go off, but smoke had started to work its way up through the ceiling into the second storey, Mr Carter said.
There was smoke damage to the back of the house, as well as fire damage in the laundry.