Edna Acullador, her husband Romy and children Edrick, 5, and Roiderick, 7, rose from their beds about 3am to find a burning ute had been driven or rolled to the edge of their brick house.

“To do that at that time, when people are in a deep sleep, it’s a deliberate act of attempted homicide,” she said.

The 1989 Mitsubishi Triton was stolen from a house in Olive Street hours before it was found ablaze and resting about a metre away from the Aculladors’ Koonwarra Street home.

Flames shot towards their roof and a nearby switchboard.

A concrete pole and the strong steel fence were all that stopped the blaze engulfing the roof of the house.

The ute had been torched at a park adjacent to the home, between Koonwarra and Wingara streets.

“I looked out the window and there were flames everywhere,” Romy Acullador said.

“The blaze grew so fast, we’re so lucky the fire truck came so fast or we would have lost the house.”

The Aculladors, originally of the Philippines, bought the house nearly three years ago and both work in Albury.

They have spent thousands of dollars on renovations.

They say they are concerned for their safety in the area after several incidents including thefts from their home, vandalism and the death of a Koonwarra Street man from stab wounds in 2006.

“We’re lucky to be alive after last night,” Mrs Acullador said.

“But now we don’t know what to do.

“We are hard-working people, we have built this place up from scratch.

“Do we have to move away?” she asked.

Mrs Acullador said she could think of no explanation for the incident, except that someone was trying to burn the house down and kill the family.

But the family said they knew of no one with a grudge against them.

Albury police are investigating the incident but Inspector John Wadsworth did not expect a racial motive was behind the dramatic attack.

Anyone with information about the theft and fire is urged to phone Albury police station on (02) 6023 9299.