A “nightmare” garage explosion jolted a family of six plus two households of guests awake as raging fire erupted and quickly took hold of a two-storey home.

Seven fire crews were deployed to the angry blaze reported on Gillet Drive in Kardinya at 6.23am where four young children under age 10 and their parents were starting their morning.

Steven Redfern lives in the attached granny flat and ran to the front when he heard yelling inside the house. There were also guests staying in the property’s separate Airbnb at the time.

Immediately he realised the severity of the situation.

“The garage just exploded out,” he told The West, pointing to burnt pieces of timber - all that remained of the garage’s roof.

Along with the kids’ dad, he made an attempt to put the fire out, tossing a bucket of water onto the garage that several cars were parked inside of.

“At the start he was just trying to put it out with the hose but it was already out of control,” Mr Redfern said.

“He was in the shower when it started, and by the time he got out it was just out of control.”

Mr Redfern made a run for it when he realised one of the cars could explode.

The young children, meanwhile, were fearing for their life, he said.

“They were freaking out, they were screaming, ‘we’re all gonna die’.

“I just feel bad for them because it looks like a lot of damage.”

A neighbour two homes down, Maryanne Chappelle, was having her morning coffee about 6am when she noticed an angry black plume of smoke.

She thought it was coming from inside her elderly neighbour’s home before realising it was the next house over.

“I stood on my chair and saw smoke billowing through the whole roof cavity,” Ms Chappelle told The West.

“So we just raced out because we knew it was a family with four kids, and they were just starting to come out. Then fire started taking over bits of the house.”

With fire crews already contacted, Ms Chappelle turned attention to getting the family to safety.

“We were making sure they were all okay, and of course getting the couple out of the Airbnb as well. We had towels to wrap around the kids,” she said.

Ms Chappelle brought the children and their mum into her home and her partner, Josh, made coffees.

“We wanted to get everyone away because it was escalating and the brigade wasn’t there yet. So we wanted to move the kids and mum away.”

The dad insisted on staying with the house and doing what he could to fight the flames.

“We were worried that the windows might blow out so we all wanted him to get away from the house, but he was doing what his instinct told him, to protect the house,” she said.

By 7.10am the blaze was extinguished and crews continued working throughout the morning hosing down the structure.

Ms Chappelle was relieved that no one was injured and everyone got out safely in time.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.