Blaze hits family hard
A solo mother must rebuild her life after another tragedy has struck her family.
Charlotte Miners, 30, watched on as the house she’d turned into a home burned to the ground on Palmerston North’s Upham Tce on Thursday.
The road was cordoned off by police as firefighters launched a watery attack on her state home, attempting to salvage anything they could from the ashes.
Miners had just left the house and was walking in to Kmart in The Plaza when she received the distressing call from police just after 12.30pm.
With three children under 5 – her youngest deaf and her eldest with learning difficulties – Miners thought she had finally found the perfect house to raise her family.
But the fire, sparked from an electrical fault, tore through her home from her bedroom into to her sons’ rooms, destroying their toys and clothing and causing irrevocable smoke damage to the rest of their belongings.
Her cat and rats at the home survived the blaze, but her mice died in the fire.
‘‘My room was absolutely obliterated,’’ Miners said. ‘‘There was nothing left.
‘‘My thoughts just went to ‘I hope Sebastian’s stuff is ok’.’’
Miners salvaged some items from her wardrobe that represented her first son Sebastian. He had died in his sleep at nine months old, seven years earlier to the day.
The family had moved to Palmerston North from an emergency housing motel in Hawke’s Bay in February 2020, after Miners and her husband divorced.
They remained good friends and Miners and her sons were settling in to the city, but tragedy struck again when her ex-husband committed suicide in February.
‘‘It’s a lot to deal with at the moment, I’m still in shock,’’ she said.
‘‘I just rebuilt our lives, and now I have to do it all over again, that’s the hardest part.
‘‘I was finally getting it feeling like a home and helping [the kids] understand they wouldn’t see their dad any more.
‘‘It’s crazy to think the kids were a few minutes away from being orphaned. It was the perfect house for us, and now it’s gone.’’
Due to their age the boys don’t understand the severity of what happened.
As they drove past the blackened home, one of her sons saw holes in the roof where the fire had travelled. He was concerned rain would wet everything inside.
The family will stay with a friend nearby, but with two families under one roof, Miners is keen to find a new residence as soon as possible.
‘‘They’re just excited the get to have a sleepover.
‘‘I’d like to stay in Palmerston North and keep the kids as normal as possible. I’ve got amazing friends here.’’
She’s been overwhelmed by support from friends, family and the wider community, with more than $1000 already donated to a Givealittle page set up to help Miners make a fresh start by Friday afternoon.
Countless offers of help finding furniture, clothes, toys and money have also flooded her inbox, but Miners has been at a loss for where to store them.
Fire Investigator Anna Gordon said the investigation into the cause of the fire was not yet finalised, but signs pointed to electrical faults.