Hero cat saves Gold Coast man from house fire

A pet cat is being hailed a hero after alerting its owner to a huge fire in his Gold Coast home.

Elanora home owner Peter Byrne said he was woken by Tiger, his 19-year-old family cat, at about 4.30am on Friday morning before any smoke alarms had even gone off.

"If he hadn't woken me up I might have been part of that collateral damage too," Mr Byrne told 9NEWS.

"He was yowling around the house and running around the house inside, and there was no sign of smoke but he knew something wasn't right."

Tiger had good instincts, with the blaze quickly spreading out of control and leading to Mr Byrne's home to collapse.

"The house is completely damaged, the roof's fallen in, some of the walls have even fallen in," Todd Murray from Queensland Fire and Rescue said.

It took four hours for fire crews to win the fight, and by then there was little to be salvaged for Mr Byrne.

Two firefighters were injured fighting the blaze and taken to hospital as a precautionary measure.