When the Furney family went to bed on Sunday night they never imagined they would wake up inside a house engulfed in flames on Monday morning.
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That nightmare scenario was what played out after an electric heater at the end of Cheryl Furney's bed is believed to have caught fire and destroyed the Myall Street home she owns.
"It was so cold in my room, I think a blanket has fallen off the bed onto the heater and that's what started the fire," Mrs Furney told the Daily Liberal.
Thanks to luck, the right timing and efforts of Dubbo firefighters, Mrs Furney and her 16-year-old daughter Shaelee made it out of their home alive.
"I was laying in bed and I could smell the smoke," Cheryl said.
"I looked down at my feet and I could see flames.
"I decided to go into the kitchen and get water but that did nothing so I ran out and got a hose."
After hearing her mother frantically trying to contain the blaze, Shaelee awoke to find smoke filling her room.
She said smoke alarms inside the house never went off and she was not sure why.
After she ran out of her bedroom to find her mother, Shaelee screamed "get out" before the fire worsened.
Cheryl lives with multiple sclerosis and said because she is normally a heavy sleeper she was lucky Shaelee was still at home when the fire started.
"I don't believe I would have made it out if she wasn't there.
"I didn't realise the severity and it wasn't until Shaelee came out that I realised we had to leave everything and get out."
Once they were both safe outside, Shaelee called triple zero and other family members.
Two dogs, Shaelee's phone and a couple of hand-made gifts given to the family from their deceased sister and aunty was all the family got out of the home before they escaped.
When firefighters arrived at about 9am the family could do nothing but watch in shock as the fire was extinguished.
"I had so many memories in that house I don't have now," Cheryl said.
"I'm not worried about the materialistic things, it's the memories.
"My photos and phone that had precious memories on it are gone too.
"The girls are due to get their p-plates and the log books are at my house."
Ever since late Monday morning when the firefighters left the house, which was insured, Cheryl said she was grateful to have received support from so many people.
"I cannot believe the kindness of strangers," she said.
"It's like they'd take the clothes off their back."
One of Cheryl's friends, Caitlin Marie, set up a GoFundMe page online to help the family after the fire.
Shaelee's twin sister Bella, who lives with her father and helped her mum and sister after the fire, said the family received a card with $200 cash in it from a doctor and a note that said "to a friend, things will get better soon, from a friend".
The family were grateful for the support they have received but they did not want sympathy, Shaelee said.
Amateur video of the blaze posted to social media and some accompanying "inconsiderate and disrespectful" comments hurt the family, she said.
"Some people were saying we had set the GoFundMe page up an hour after the fire but we didn't set it up," she advised.
"I feel like some people think it's a joke by the way they comment on social media and I asked them [the person who posted the video] to take the video down but they won't."
As a person living with depression and anxiety, Shaelee said since the fire she has barely been able to sleep and is terrified of losing her mother.
Now homeless, Cheryl and Shaelee are staying with their partners.
"It's a waiting game now to rebuild our lives," Cheryl said as she also praised the efforts of firefighters and paramedics who helped treat minor burns to her feet, hair and hands.
"They were amazing," she said.
"You can't be careful enough" was Cheryl's advice to people with electric heaters and fire hazards in their homes.
To donate to the family visit the GoFundMe page.