Veronica Saguibo said her nephew called her at her Hiapo Street home and told her the house on Pilimai Street was on fire.

Saguibo rushed to the scene and discovered her elderly mother and father were already out of the home along with her parent's tenants, a husband and wife and their two young daughters.

Saguibo said that she was told her father, who has Alzheimer's disease, was preparing a barbeque fire in the back of the home that apparently got out of control.

"We don't usually let him do that and I guess he just went out there and did it," she said.

"And then he panicked when it got out of control and began to yell 'fire.' "