‘It’s our whole life’ — all belongings lost in home inferno
A Christchurch woman says she has lost her “whole life” after her container home was destroyed in the Port Hills fires.
Worsleys Rd resident Anna Spark was at work as a security guard in New Brighton on Wednesday when her mother called to say there was a fire on the hills and that it “doesn’t look good”.
“I just headed across town as fast as I possibly could,” she said. “I literally made it in the nick of time to be able to go down and rescue my three dogs, my goat, my cat and open up the alpaca paddock so that they would have a chance because the flames were encroaching the bottom of their paddock, they were coming on to our property and I was very close to it all.
“I just had to get my animals out.” When she arrived she could not see flames over the hill, but when she went to open the alpaca paddocks, she could see flames about 6 metres high.
“I was just like, ‘far out . . . I’ve got to get out of here’.”
After a sleepless night, she returned on Thursday to check on the alpacas.
“As we drove down I was in the animal management car and I said, ‘oh my container’s gone’. They asked, ‘where’s that?’ and I pointed down the hill beyond a vehicle and said, ‘that’s my container’. The whole thing was gone.”
Spark had been living in the
container for about four years, first moving in to help her grandmother before she died two years ago.
The outdoor kitchen, fridge, table and bedroom were gone.
“[My] 32-inch TV, Xbox, bed, all my lifelong furniture, everything that’s valuable to me — journals, books. My dad lost his computer set up in my room — he lost his writing. He’s been a writer and he backed everything up and left it on the desk. “It’s our whole life. “Fortunately, my dad has a room that hasn’t been touched, up the hill, as far as we know, so all his personal belongings he has still . . . but everything of my personal belongings has gone. Just what I have in my car is what I have.”
As she went to check on the alpacas yesterday, she said she did not think she had processed it all.
“I’m still a bit in shock, a bit of panic. I’m without a home right now but I kind of trust people are going to help me. I’ve got my family around me, I’m not going to be homeless.
“I’m going to look to secure a house in town for now and I hope to go back to the hill one day and maybe build a tiny house, that’s really my dream.
“But for now it’s just dealing with all of this and getting back on [my] feet.”
A Givealittle page has been set up by a friend to help. To donate, go to givealittle.co.nz and search Anna Spark