A fire gutted home opened to the public today is showing people the damage a fire can cause.

Mount Maunganui firefighters are showing people through a home on Maranui Street that was destroyed by a fire on Sunday July 6.

Rodney, Cam, 12, and Lisa get a tour of the house from senior firefighter Robert Pinkerton. Photos by Tracy Hardy.

A 77-year-old woman was pulled from the burning house on after an electric blanket sparked a fire in her bedroom about 6.20pm.

The tour, which will continue until 3pm, is in an effort to illustrate the dangers of fire.

Lisa Luke took her son Cam, 12, along to the open house to see the damage the fire had caused and says she was shocked by what she saw.

'I came along today to have a look as we have never seen the inside of a burnt house before.

'The damage it has done was absolutely shocking.” She says the smoke and the mess and how quick the fire spread shocked her.

Lisa says the one thing she has learnt from today is just to get out when a building is on fire.

'Don't worry about anything else, just get out. Make sure everyone is out because you don't have much time.

'We have smoke alarms at home. We have them in the garage and all throughout the house. I think we have about seven.”

Lisa says one of the things that stuck in her mind from the tour was how low the smoke could get.

'You do have to crawl and there's not much of a gap, and not much time. You only have a minute if you're lucky to get out.

”It's been fantastic learning, you don't often get a chance to look at the damage first hand.”

Bay of Plenty Coast, Fire Service area manager Murray Binning says people often don't realise just how quickly a fire spreads and the need to prepare their families for what to do in the event of a fire.

'By seeing the results of a fire first-hand and talking to the Fire Service they can learn valuable information about preventing fires and planning to escape from fires.”

The Fire Service is showing families the significant points of interest like where and how the fire started, how damage could have been reduced and the impact of smoke and flames.

Fire safety information is also being provided for people to take away.

'We would like to convey the importance of having working Smoke Alarms and a pre-planned escape plan, which was a contributing factor to this potential near fatal fire.

'We also plan to discuss the importance of yearly checks of electric blankets and their safe use, and the importance of calling 111 at the earliest opportunity.”

Murray hopes by holding this open home, they can prevent fires of tragedies like this happening to other families.