‘Dream home’ loss disaster for family
Bruce Buchanan’s family home and wheelchair have been incinerated just weeks after he was hit by a car and nearly sliced his wrist off with a chainsaw.
Speaking to Stuff about the blaze that ravaged his and wife Jocelyn’s dream home in the Central Hawke’s Bay town of Waipawa on Sunday, Buchanan said he had nothing left and was ‘‘devastated’’.
The couple and their two young grandsons – 9-year-old William, who has cerebral palsy, and 10-year-old Hunter – managed to escape the blaze.
‘‘Everything was in place, but now that’s all gone,’’ Bruce Buchanan said.
A blaze broke out at the Johnson St house about 7am on Sunday and took two hours to extinguish. About 3.30am on Monday, the blaze reignited.
Fire and Emergency assistant area commander Nigel Hall said an investigator was determining the cause, but Buchanan said he knew exactly what it was.
‘‘On the couch in our little studio was a little flame,’’ he said. ‘‘There was a shortage on the plug, which sparked onto the couch and created a small fire.’’
But when the couple, who are both 60, tried to extinguish the flames, the couch ‘‘exploded . . . like a petrol bomb’’.
‘‘It then went right up to the roof and took our whole house down, within minutes the house went completely black with smoke.’’
The couple and their grandsons managed to escape, but Jocelyn suffered first-degree burns after walking through flames, which she sought medical attention for.
The entire house and all of its contents were incinerated. The couple did not have insurance.
It capped off a tough period for Bruce, who uses a wheelchair. He was struck by a car and, in a separate incident, nearly sliced his wrist off with a chainsaw.
‘‘I’ve been going through a lot of disasters, it’s been happening on and on and on. We’ve had an ongoing battle.’’
His grandson William also recently underwent a ‘‘massive’’ operation for his cerebral palsy to make his feet ‘‘flat on the ground’’. As a result, he was in ‘‘heavy’’ plaster at the time of the blaze.
A Givealittle page has been set up to support the family. The Buchanans hoped to eventually rebuild on the property. The suspicious deaths of three Waikato men in the past fortnight were targeted acts by gangs, police say.
Waikato District Commander Superintendent Bruce Bird confirmed in a statement yesterday that the three recent homicide investigations were linked to the gang fraternity.
‘‘As with all investigations, we are keeping an open mind on whether the homicides are linked. However, inquiries to date lead us to believe the three deaths were targeted individual acts within the gang community,’’ Bird said.
More than 60 police staff were working on the three investigations, he said.
Mitchell Curtis Rehua Paterson’s body was discovered in the water below McLaren Falls bridge near Tauranga on Friday. The 26-year-old Nga¯ruawa¯hia local’s Facebook page shows links to several gangs, including video of the Greazy Dogs.
The investigation has led to the arrests of three men. A 27-year-old man is charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder by assisting another man – still wanted by police – to dispose of the body. He has appeared in court and has been armed intruder burst into his girlfriend Kahlee Marfell’s family home and began firing. Marfell, 20, remains in Waikato Hospital recovering from surgery for gunshot wounds.
The early-morning shooting at the house of Marfell’s father, Mark Griffiths – a senior Mongrel Mob member – sent shockwaves through the community.
Those deaths came 17 days after Wayne Noda, 48, was found dead in the living room of his home behind Huntly Power station. He died of injuries inflicted during an assault.