Ruth Nichols was at work when she got a call to say her house was on fire.

The Meander Valley Road home was fully engulfed, with seven firefighting crews and more than 20 individual firefighters working for hours to contain the blaze.

Arriving at the property to multiple fire trucks, police and paramedics, Ms Nichols could see her housemate standing in the front yard.

She said her first concern was that her dogs were still inside.

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She soon learned her two rescue pups, Zeik and Vitor, had been taken out of the house shortly after the fire started and were being kept in a neighbouring yard.

Describing the dogs as her babies, the emotional owner said she would not have coped if they had not made it out.

"All I've got left now is my car and my dogs," she said.

The devastating event comes just six months after the death of her father, whose belongings she had only recently finished packing up inside the home.

"I looked and I first thought 'this is alright it's only the back bedroom'," Ms Nichols said.

"But there's nothing left in that house, not one thing left.

"These things have a ripple effect, it's not just a house fire and unless you've been through it you really don't have any idea what people go through."

While the home she grew up in has been destroyed, Ms Nichols said she was grateful for her neighbour, who offered her and her dogs a place to stay.

"I have this wonderful neighbour Tom, who is 96-years-old, and he said he has a room, he is just so lovely," she said.

Fire crews remained at the scene late into the afternoon on Tuesday, with investigators working to determine the cause.

"Due to the damage to the property it might take some time to determine the origin of the fire," Launceston station officer Adrian Gill said.

"We were only able to conduct an exterior attack due to the intensity of the fire.

"We had troubles with water, we had heavy tankers come from several brigades to supply water to the main fire truck to put the fire out."

Tasmania Fire Service was first alerted to the incident by a passerby who noticed smoke coming from the home about midday.

Officers from Launceston, Hadspen, Perth and Carrick brigades were involved in containing the fire.