Family’s dreams demolished by fire
Waipawa couple Bruce and Jocelyn Buchanan say there were heartbroken as they watched the “dream home” they had almost finished creating for their two grandsons be torn down before their eyes.
Completely gutted in a major blaze on July 15, the Buchanan’s home was demolished on Friday by Higgins, at no cost to the couple, a day after it was issued with an “unsafe and unsanitary” notice by Central Hawke’s Bay District Council at the request of fire authorities.
“It’s heartbreaking to watch. I am crying inside,” said Bruce Buchanan, 60, as wife Jocelyn tried to salvage what items she could from the charred ruins before the house was reduced to a pile of rubble.
“There’s 60 years of our lives in there and 200 years of history. I had all my family’s records in there,” said Jocelyn, who also lost her valuable embroidery collection worth tens of thousands of dollars, including some items made from rare 1800s silk, and other precious heirlooms.
The couple relocated the old 1900s six-bedroom farm station from near Mangatanoika in 2006 after moving from Hastings to the Central Hawke’s Bay town. Six and a half years ago, after becoming guardians of their grandsons — Hunter, 10, and William, 9, who suffers from cerebral palsy and global developmental delays – they set about creating a dream home for the two boys.
But those dreams were destroyed early on Sunday, July 15 when the family and a house guest staying the night were woken around 7am by the sound of smoke alarms as the house became engulfed in flames after an electrical fault caused a couch to catch fire.
Jocelyn said William, who had both legs in casts after recently undergoing surgery to help with his walking, had managed to get into her bed when the fire broke out, and eventually had to drag himself out of the burning building.
“He was petrified, literally lying in the foetal position. I said ‘William you have to get up’, and he said ‘can you carry me, Nanna?’ And I told him ‘I can’t, you’re too heavy, you’ll have to crawl out’.”
Some 35 volunteer firefighters from Waipawa, Waipukurau, Otane ¯ and Tikokino spent around seven hours fighting the blaze. Many were back soon after when the fire flared up again in the kitchen early the nxt morning.
“They were here all day Sunday and they were back at 3.30am on the Monday morning. So a huge, huge thanks to them,” said Jocelyn.
The house was well involved by the time firefighters arrived and they were unable to save it. Bruce likened the destruction of the house to the death of a family member, while Jocelyn said the couple had poured everything into creating a home for the boys.
“We were probably three quarters finished. It’s my life’s work, I have put in [insulation] batts, I have put up gib, I’ve painted, I’ve decorated. Everything that I am ... I’ve poured into this home.”
Making their loss even more painful was the fact the Johnson St home was uninsured. Bruce suffers chronic pain syndrome and has had two knee replacements - for which he relied on his ACC-provided electric wheelchair, which was destroyed in the fire while Jocelyn suffered a brain injury in 2005 after a fall at work.
After more than a decade on ACC payments, Jocelyn said the couple had stopped paying insurance because they couldn’t afford it.
“When you are on low incomes, something has to give. We shouldn’t have done it. It was a calculated risk and we lost.”
Apart from Jocelyn suffering a burn to her foot, all five managed to escape the fire unhurt. But she said the family had been plagued by
nightmares in the aftermath of the fire.
“I just kept seeing the flames over and over. Hunter woke up last night from a nightmare — we all have,” said Jocelyn.
Despite the trauma, Jocelyn said the couple had been comforted by the overwhelming support they had received.
A Givealittle page set up for the couple within hours of the blaze has raised more than $10,000, while others had donated clothes, household items, white goods and arranged meals for the family.
“The community support has been overwhelming really,” said Jocelyn, while Bruce was amazed at the generosity of CHB locals and others around the country after their plight attracted national media attention.
“We thought it might be a little sideline [in a newspaper] somewhere, but we didn’t expect it to go national. We are just two people trying to create a home for our two beautiful [grand]sons.”
Since the fire, the Buchanans have been staying with another Waipawa couple, Craig and Esther Stuart, owners of Paladin Locksmiths and fellow members of CHB’s strong home-schooling community.
The Buchanans were looking at offers of accommodation in the meantime, but hoped to build an ablution block and convert their double garage into a temporary home while they investigated options to rebuild. But money and time are against them.
Reports they had three sections ready for sale were not entirely correct. They had almost finished subdividing one of three, half hectare sections on their land, but a buyer pulled out.
“So we have to start that process all over again. But now we don’t have the money to subdivide,” said Jocelyn.
“We are 60 years old and don’t have the time to start all over again. And we have Hunter and William to think about. We have pressures. I am good in a crisis, I go into organisation mode. But I’ve warned people they can expect to pick me up off the floor in a couple of months,” she said.
But Jocelyn said the religious couple still had their faith, and their land, and had many “wonderful” people to thank including Laura Jayne-Braithwaite, who started the Givelittle page and whose mother was the Buchanan’s house guest on the night of the fire.
“Apart from the emergency services, who were just wonderful, I also have to thank Paladin Locksmiths for their generosity taking us in, Noeline Alcock who opened up her pharmacy for Bruce’s meds, Angela Jenkinson who has been arranging meals for us, and Leisa and Yeti Neemia have been organising donations. There’s a lot of wonderful, wonderful people. We even had a mobility scooter donated to Bruce. It’s been overwhelming.”
A council spokesman said the notice for the Buchanan’s home had been issued following a request from the fire service. The home was “extremely unsafe,” he said, and council had an obligation under the Building Act to stop people from entering it.
■ Donations of goods to the Buchanans can be dropped off to the old Country Traders building in Waipawa and people can also donate to givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-for-thebuchanan-family-after-fire-destroys