Smoke alarms are credited with alerting a Tauranga family to a switchboard fire in their Surrey Grove home on Thursday night.

The house's occupants were alerted to the smouldering switchboard just after 7pm, says Greerton station officer Bill Rackham.

Smoke alarms have been credited with saving a Merivale family on Thursday night. File Photo.

The occupants also managed to switch off the power, which restricted the fire's spreading from the switchboard.

'We really just had a house full of smoke really,” says Bill.

The building was ventilated and firefighters checked the fire had not spread into the roof cavity.