A Papamoa couple are grateful to have made it out of a house fire with their dog and Christmas family memories.

Peter and Karina Gulik were having their gas hot water cylinder replaced when a fire took hold in the ceiling of their Santa Monica Drive home just before 12pm.

Karina Gulik talking with firefighters after her Papamoa home caught fire this afternoon. Photos: Tracy Hardy.

'We were in the last stage of renovating the house, says Peter,” speaking to SunLive as firefighters dealt with the fire.

'We had the bathroom, kitchen and floor tiles done plus all the internal painting. One of the last steps was to replace the gas hot water cylinder,”

'The plumber arrived here at 9.15am and was in the process of finishing the job and welding the pipes together when a spark just went somewhere.

'The next thing was, he was screaming at us to get out of the house.”

Peter believes the fire spread quite quickly due to the wind in the area at the moment.

He says they just had to get out.

'I grabbed the laptop, because I was looking at all the Christmas videos we got from Auckland at the weekend, grabbed the car keys so we had wheels and credit cards and all that important stuff.”

Despite the predicament the couple have been placed in, Peter and Karina are remaining calm about the situation.

'When you get to your late 60s and you have had a few dramas in your life, you learn to cope a little bit better. The dog hasn't been singed and is still wagging its tail.

'We're fine for now. It will be a bit of a mission to fix the house up and we are fully insured and so is the plumber. We're okay, and we have family that we can stay with.”

The fire in the ceiling of the Santa Monica Drive home has caused the roof to collapse.

Mount Maunganui Fire Brigade station officer Paul van Kol says the fire was fully involved in the roof space when firefighters arrived on the scene.

Trucks were dispatched from Mount Maunganui, Tauranga and Greerton Fire Brigade, along with 16 firefighters.

'We got to work with several hose lines and have required 16 firefighters on site with specialist equipment for salvage,” says Paul.

'We are going to try and salvage the furniture. The majority of the ceiling is still intact so we are going to try and save the people's property from inside the house.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but Paul believes it may have started from welding a copper pipe.

'We had an aggressive attack to put the fire out, but now the roof is collapsing so we have to take it easy. We don't hurt any of our troops. Now we're just carrying out what we call salvage.”