Electronic equipment found near the seat of a fire that swept through a Mount Maunganui unit is to be examined by fire safety inspectors.

Mount Maunganui station officer Neil Brown says the fire was put out before it took a hold of the residential property at Aintree Place, but there is smoke damage throughout.

Firefighters put out a fire in a property in Aintree Place at Mount Maunganui.

'The main fire damage is within the living room,” says Neil.

There was no one home at the unit when the fire broke out. It was seen by a neighbour across the Epsom Reserve, who noticed flames along the floor by the window and tackled them with a garden hose.

Neil says there are no smoke alarms in the house. If the fire had broken out at night the family of three and one dog that live there would have had no warning.

Neighbours say the family moved into the house only recently.

Firefighters from Tauranga and Mount Maunganui responded to the fire at 3.15pm, and quickly had it under control.

A woman and child living in the unit had left the house shortly before it caught fire.

They returned to pick up a forgotten sports uniform to find fire engines in the cul de sac, hoses up the shared driveway and their home full of smoke and firefighters in breathing apparatus.