A Porirua man lost his house and most of his possessions in a New Years Eve fire while he was at church with his young daughter.
Lameko Gaualofa was back at the Housing New Zealand home yesterday, picking through the remains. Tears streamed down his face as he found the charred photos of his four children. This is the hardest part, he said. Some of these photos were taken when they were babies. Now that most of them are all grown up I loved looking at the photos. They made me smile.
About 10pm, Mr Gaualofa was on his way to church from a friends house, and decided to stop at home to make sure the lights were off and windows closed. He left his house at 10.15pm with his six-year-old daughter. Fifteen minutes later the fire service was thereto fight an inferno.
I got home from church about midnight and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I was speechless. It didn’t make any sense.
A keen fisherman, he was upset that his new gear was lost in the blaze. But his old fishing gear stored in the basement survived the fire. So at least I can still go fishing, but its still pretty gut-wrenching to lose so much.
Porirua senior station officer Barry Murphy said three fire engines and 12 fire fighters were needed to fight the blaze.
It didn’t take long for the fire to get a bloody good hold. The scariest part was when we arrived we did not know if there were people inside, Mr Murphy said.
The neighbours weren’t sure either so until we knew there was no-one inside it gave us some tense moments.
Detective Sergeant Jason Dombroski said the fire, which destroyed about 80 per cent of the house, was being treated as suspicious. But until a scene investigation had been completed it could not be confirmed.
The Dominion Post – By Nathan Beaumont
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