"My heart was racing and we just hoped no one was inside. The doors were locked and there was a note on the door, which said, 'shot into town be back soon'."
The neighbour's mate grabbed a bucket of water, but the fire had taken hold.
"It just shot up and only took 10 minutes to be well underway," he said.
The men made one important save - rescuing a dog which was tied on a leash to the house.
Pete Sinclair, the Dannevirke Volunteer Fire Brigade's chief, said the fire had started in the back porch of the house, but the actual cause was undetermined.
"Either a skip bin or a rubbish bin on the porch was the source, but what was in it we don't know," he said.
"The fire spread up the back outside wall, through the ceiling and under the floor of the home, but the inside escaped the flames.
"It was lucky someone had made the call to report it because another three minutes and the fire would have gone through the house.
"When our firefighters arrived a ventilation unit had just dropped onto a chair. The foam would have quickly ignited and that would have been it for the house. As it was, most of the damage was confined to the ceiling, with charring under the floor.
"There was a lot of smoke and a reasonable breeze when we arrived at the fire, but having the all the doors inside the house closed certainly helped."
