LEFT WITH NOTHING
Fire destroys dad’s home and livelihood
AMAN has lost everything after a fire destroyed his home and workshop, taking all of his possessions with it. Richard Saltar, 59, received a call on the night of July 15, telling him that the unit he rents as a workshop and as accommodation had gone up in flames, leaving him homeless.
“I have the car I drove to work in and the clothes I was wearing while I was at work,” said Mr Saltar, describing what he’s been left with after the fire in Newbridge, Caerphilly.
“I’ve got to admit that talking about it actually gets me down, but then I suppose that’s normal.
“The way I’m looking at it now, and I guess it’s the only way to look at it, is that I’ve got to draw a line under it and start again.”
His daughter, Nicola Stewart, described the anguish of finding out what had happened that night.
“We thought he was in there,” she said, adding that she didn’t find out her dad was safe for more than an hour.
“When we found out that he wasn’t in there, I knew his life just fell [apart] ,” she said. “I was up all night and I couldn’t sleep. And then I thought that at least stuff can be replaced – he couldn’t.”
Mr Saltar is a lorry driver who has worked consistently delivering food across the UK throughout lockdown, often at unsociable hours.
Luckily a last-minute change in shifts meant he was out in his lorry when the fire broke out – otherwise he would have been asleep there when it happened.
Ms Stewart also described how many of her dad’s most treasured items have been lost for ever.
“He’s got things in there he can never replace again...
“He’s taken things from when I was a baby and stuff like that over there and they’ve gone now,” she said.
“He was a massive coin collector and they’re all gone too.”
As well as only being left with the clothes on his back, Mr Saltar has lost precious photographs and family heirlooms that are irreplaceable.
The sense of despair is made even greater by the fact that Mr Saltar is celebrating a big milestone this week, as he turns 60 at the weekend.
“We were going to have a little party, but now this has happened we’re going to need to get a donation of clothes and things like that for him,” said Ms Stewart.
The situation has also been complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, with some of Mr Saltar’s family needing to shield due to health conditions.
“It’s all just happened at once and we don’t know what to do,” said Ms Stewart.
Mr Saltar had been happily living in the unit for eight years and said living in his workshop had suited his way of life.
Now he is staying with daughter while he searches somewhere else to live.
However, he said that he is now needing to take on more work in order to raise money to rebuild his life.
“Now that I’ve lost everything I’ve got to work as much as I can to be able to buy what I need to survive,” said Mr Saltar.
To help her dad out Ms Stewart has started fundraising campaigns on Facebook and GoFundMe. his for