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A Wellington woman has described the frantic escape from her home as her neighbour’s house went up in a “terrific mass of flames” last night.

The dramatic fire started on High St in Island Bay shortly before 7pm yesterday, destroying one home and damaging another.

The downhill neighbour of the house where the fire began, who did not give her name, told the Herald she was home that evening when she heard a “thump” outside.

“I thought it was an earthquake but, my house, nothing moved. I was sitting, having my meal,” she said.

“I heard some other sort of banging noise and I thought someone was dropping something off to me.”

But when the woman looked out of her window, she saw “flames shooting outside”.

“I was about to go out and a man from up the street came running outside my house saying ‘get out, get out.’”

The woman grabbed her keys and fled the building.

“I should have taken my phone [but] I didn’t have time to think. I just had to go.”

She said the fire was “very confronting”.

“I wouldn’t have thought something like that would happen on a sort of nice afternoon ... it was a little bit windy, which probably saved my house, because it went in the opposite direction.”

The Island Bay house quickly went up in flames. Photo / Blair Knuckey

The fire was “just a terrific mass of flames, flames shooting up in the air. I can still see them, it’s just terrible. I had about two hours sleep I think.”

The woman was full of praise for the firefighters who stayed throughout the night to keep the scene under control.

She has since checked in on the neighbour on the other side of the house, who was not home when the blaze happened. That neighbour’s house had been damaged, she said.

The woman was still shocked at “how fast these things take over”, and said the affected house would not be able to be lived in anymore.

“It’s a charred, soddy mess ... there’s nothing they could save. I can’t imagine how they must feel.

“They have lost everything. I just feel so sorry for them,” the woman said through tears.

Witness Blair Knuckey said his partner came home from a walk last night and noticed the blaze across the bay.

The blaze was visible across Island Bay. Photo / Blair Knuckey

He went out to the beach with his camera to capture photos and video.

“[The] fire got quite big quickly,” he said.

A Fire and Emergency shift manager said one crew remained on site this morning and a specialist fire investigation team was looking into the cause of the fire, which started in the garage and spread to the main building.

Three crews stayed overnight, having to put out hotspots and combat wind.

Firefighters are battling strong winds to extinguish a large blaze at two residential properties in the Wellington suburb of Island Bay.

Incident Controller Mike Dombroski yesterday said the fire spread to nearby vegetation but was extinguished.

“Firefighters are monitoring the area closely for any further spread,” he said.

There were six fire trucks, an aerial appliance, command unit and operational support vehicles at the scene last night.

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice, and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.