Adelaide man Dwayne Harvey relives the moment he accidentally set his house on fire in TV interview

A man has relived the moment he narrowly escaped after accidentally setting his home ablaze while attempting to refill his zippo lighter.

Adelaide man Dwayne Harvey, 48, said he had been filling the lighter with fluid about 7pm Thursday, but when he struck the flint his unit was engulfed in flames. 

‘It leaked out, everything I thought I was putting into the lighter didn’t go in … it went all over the floor,’ he said, speaking to 7NEWS outside the home on Friday. 

‘When I struck the lighter, it lit up like a Christmas tree.

‘I thought gas evaporates, but nah, there was a pool of it,’ he told 9NEWS separately. 

Flames quickly spread across Mr Harvey and the floor. 

Mr Harvey said he froze at first, too stunned to act, but he quickly composed himself and smothered the fire on the floor with a blanket.

Dwayne Harvey, 48, (above) told of how he nearly died when a pool of lighter fluid caught fire  which scorched his home

The blanket, however, only made the fire worse. 

‘I tried putting it out about four times and by that point I knew that I couldn’t put it out, the whole kitchen was engulfed,’ he said, tearing up.

‘I admitted defeat.’ 

The flames reached a bucket of cleaning chemicals and took off over the walls and ceiling.

‘The heat was intense and it was immediately intense. I thought I was in the crematorium,’ Mr Harvey said.

Mr Harvey showed TV crews around his scorched home (above), with the walls blackened all the way to the ceiling

Donning nothing but his beloved blues scarf, pants, and a cap, Mr Harvey (above) told reporters almost everything he owned was destroyed in the fire

‘I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,’ said Mr Harvey, whose unit previously caught on fire when he fell asleep while cooking. 

Mr Harvey lost most of his possessions in Thursday’s blaze.

‘It tore my kitchen apart, tore my bathroom apart, tore my room apart and tore my lounge room apart.’

Mr Harvey’s kitchen was barely recognisable after the fire, with the appliances completely destroyed and covered in debris (above)

His kitchen was toasted, with burn-marks extending from the floor to ceiling on the walls and the appliances melted and disfigured. 

The rest of the unit’s internal walls were charred black.  

Burnt debris remains scattered over the surfaces in the home and Mr Harvey’s front door is hanging off. 

A pool table belonging to his father and a few items from his bedroom were about all Mr Harvey could salvage from the fire.

Now, Mr Harvey must find a temporary place to live. 

‘What did I salvage? The shirt off my back,’ he said. 

When a reporter said the blaze was really sad, Mr Harvey slumped.

‘It is, it is really, I was just starting to get it right, you know what I mean.’