A South Auckland blaze which saw four homes on fire this morning, and had nearby residents fearing they'd have to evacuate, is being treated as suspicious.

Police and two fire investigators are at the scene in Clover Park, where emergency services received a report of a large house fire just after 5am.

The northern fire communications centre then started to get multiple reports of the blaze - only to be told there were now four properties on fire.

Only charred scaffolding remains of one structure and on another, smashed windows can be seen.

"Police are treating the fire as suspicious and will be working with FENZ (Fire and Emergency NZ) to establish the cause.

"We ask anyone with any information to get in contact on 105," police said.

All four properties are under construction and were empty at the time, a Fire and Emergency spokeswoman told the Herald.

There are no reports of injuries.

'Huge orange cloud'

One neighbour said he woke around 5am and saw flames reaching above the house. He said he was scared the fire was going to reach his home - but fire crews arrived in time.

A neighbour across the street, Michelle Nguyen, told the Herald her family awoke to beeping of car horns before seeing a "huge orange cloud".

The neighbour said police spoke to her this morning and believed the fire might be suspicious because there were no electrical lines installed at the newly built homes.

She said construction had been ongoing for about six months and believed the homes were almost finished, because she had seen groups of people come to view them in recent weeks.

She said the owners of the properties were at the scene earlier this morning.

Police can be seen making enquiries with other residents on the street.

Nguyen said this morning her family were worried they were going to have to evacuate as the blaze grew, and they could hear windows smashing.

"It was horrific to see," she said.

"I gotta say, we were quite scared."

On arrival, firefighters found the properties "well-involved", and there were nine trucks in attendance.