Community rallies for house-fire victims
It took just five minutes for the blaze to engulf the house.
A Stokes Valley couple lost all their possessions in a ferocious blaze on Thomson Grove on Friday. Witnesses described the house becoming engulfed in flames in less than five minutes.
Now the couple are without anywhere to live but the community have rallied behind them.
Cecelia Yuhoi, who is a friend of the extended family, began collecting items for the couple within hours of hearing about the blaze.
Yuhoi lives around the corner, and her husband and son were two of the first on the scene when the fire broke out. ‘‘It was a tragedy.’’
She has begun collecting food, toiletries, clothes and shoes for the couple.
People had started dropping items off on Friday night. ‘‘There is so much generosity from the community,’’ Yuhoi said.
The couple are now staying with relatives in the area. ‘‘It was a bit like a war zone,’’ said Alex Zoie, who lives nearby and recorded the fire on his phone.
‘‘It was scary; took only five minutes to go fully in flame.’’
Huge amounts of smoke could be seen billowing from the home.
Nobody was seriously hurt, but an elderly man was taken to Hutt Hospital for a checkup after suffering superficial burns while walking around the property.