Suspected e-bike battery fire guts home in Sydney's north

A family has escaped injury after a fire, suspected to have been caused by an e-bike's lithium battery, set their home alight this morning.

The Narraweena home in Sydney's Northern Beaches caught alight at 4 am today.

Neighbours said they heard a loud bang, which they mistook for gunfire at first.

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"It was about 4 am and I heard like an explosion, I thought it was a gunshot," a neighbour said.

"I looked outside on my balcony and all I could see was fire."

The property did not have working smoke alarms inside the house, however, no one was injured as the family managed to escape.

"There was nobody in the house, we had four occupants who had self-evacuated," NSW Fire & Rescue firefighter Tom Callaghan said.

"We decided to go with a defensive strategy, which means we stay outside and not go inside.

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"We had a crew at the rear of the house and front of the house, (with a) couple more crews arriving. 

"We extinguished the fire from outside."

A neighbour was taken to hospital with burns to his foot after running inside to help the family evacuate.