Home destroyed in Christmas blaze
“WE were ... in the middle of opening Christmas presents when I got a phone call and my face went grey.”
So says Lower Barrington woman Bec Wealands, whose Sheffield Rd house, which she has shared with partner Natasha Marie and their seven children, some biological, some foster, for the past decade was destroyed by fire on Christmas.
The house is uninhabitable – Tasmania Fire Service estimate the damage to have been $300,000. Investigators believe the fire was accidental.
Ms Wealands said she was informed it was an electrical fault near the front door.
The day had started like any other Christmas – a happy family occasion. But the laughter lasted no later than late morning.
“At 10.20am, we left for Christmas lunch. At 11am our house was gone,” she said.
It was her father, who lives on the property in a detached cottage with Ms Wealands’ mother, who raised the alarm.
“They saw some smoke and knew no-one was home. Dad ran down to go look and put on the garden hose tried to put it out,” Ms Wealands said.
But the fire was already too engaged.
Ms Wealands received a call from her mum.
“We were at the in-laws in the middle of opening presents when I got a phone call and my face went grey. Everyone thought someone had died. Natasha and I raced back, we were only 11 minutes away. The whole thing was ablaze,” Ms Wealands said.
“Natasha and I were in shock. We had to look for our cats, we
found them many hours later with singed paws. Our dogs were fine too, they were outside.”
Ms Wealands labelled the firefighters who help try and save her home as “heroes,” revealing two of them were subsequently hospitalised for smoke inhalation.
She further encouraged the community to have fire plans in place and share them with their children – three of her and Natasha’s
children are fire cadets.
“I urge everyone to have fire plan and make sure their kids are incredibly aware of the plan,” Ms Wealands said.
Her greatest praise was reserved for her friends in the community – a fundraiser has raised nearly $9000 at the time of writing, while a friend has allowed the family to relocate into a four-bedroom rental free of charge.