Two Chch fires under investigation
Louisa Coleman had her two daughters in the bath when she heard a ‘‘big explosion’’ next door.
‘‘I ran through the house and looked through the window and it was just a big wall of orange.’’
A huge garage fire on Buckleys Rd at 5.30 pm on Sunday night is one of two potentially suspicious fires in Linwood being investigated by police.
Coleman said when she saw the flames coming from the house next door she immediately ran back through her house to take her chil- dren out of the bath and send them to her neighbours.
She then came back yelling out to others to warn them of the fire, and grabbed her garden hose to attempt to put it out herself while waiting for fire crews to arrive.
In the meantime, others in the area were rushing to her aid, thinking the family may still be in the house. ‘‘Some lady smashed my bedroom window thinking we were still in there. And some guy tried to kick in my door. But it was all coming from the right place.’’
Coleman had only lived in her house for six months, and had no trouble with the neighbours, who she barely knew, before then. One side of her house is now charred, and the piping is melted.
Yuri, the man who lives in the house, is from Russia and has lived in Christchurch for 15 years, and is renting his current home for six. The house is for sale.
He said he was at home doing the dishes when the fire began.
‘‘It was very fast,’’ he said. ‘‘It may be electrical.’’
He was worried what his wife would say when she returned from a trip overseas. ‘‘My wife is going to come back and kill me.’’
Just 100 metres down Buckleys Rd, another suspicious blaze has kept fire crews busy. A vacant rental property was extensively damaged when it was set alight at 5.45am yesterday.
Fire investigator Bruce Irvine said the cause of the fire had not yet been determined, but as it started in the entryway it would be deemed as suspicious.
‘‘There’s no logical reason for us to have a fire there,’’ he said.
Irvine said because the two fires were ‘‘in such close proximity’’, they would need to both be investigated as suspicious.