Victim ‘lived for chooks’

The victim of a fatal house fire on the outskirts of Christchurch was a quiet man who ‘‘lived for his chooks’’, a close friend says. Firefighters were called to the blaze on Conservators Rd near Savills Rd, McLeans Island, about 7.20pm on Monday. Police confirmed yesterday that the victim was Robert William Jones, 69. Friends and neighbours say the former chicken factory worker was retired and spent most of his days looking after his range of farm birds. ‘‘The chooks were his life,’’ friend Morrie McDermott said. Jones was a quiet man who mostly kept to himself and ‘‘had his own way of doing things’’.