Community rallies round Ronnie after garage fire
A WEST FIFE community stalwart has said he is “astounded” by more than £4,000 in donations and offers of help after his workshop and tools were destroyed by fire.
Ronnie Collins looked out of the window of his Newmills home on Monday night to see smoke billowing from his garage/workspace in his back garden.
Firefighters raced to the premises just before 11pm and extinguished the blaze, however, it caused extensive damage.
Ronnie, who heads the West Fife Woodlands group and has been instrumental in many improvements in the local area, said his extensive collection of tools and equipment were all lost in the blaze.
“I had been up there on Monday finishing off a couple of things and came out about 8pm,” he said. “At about quarter to 11 at night, the electrics started tripping in the house and I thought, ‘What’s going on?’. I looked out and smoke was coming out of the garage.
“I ran out and when I opened the door, saw flames birrelling right round. Next door got the garden hose but it wasn’t able to do anything until the fire brigade came.
“It is completely destroyed. Every tool I have had was in there. When I think about the things I had, the bits and pieces that I have got over the years, it is hard to see and is going to take a bit of time to work out.”
Following the fire, Ronnie’s daughter, Charlotte, set up a crowdfunder appeal to help raise money to replace some of the equipment lost.
Posting on social media, she said: “I have set up a crowdfunding page in the hopes that this community can pull together as it has done so many times in the past for a worthy cause.
“Ronnie has dedicated most of his adult life to improving our beautiful little slice of historic Scotland. As everyone knows, Ronnie is passionate in his community groups and works tirelessly to assist in any group that asks for his assistance from local primary schools to local woodland walking groups and so on.
“We want him to be able to continue his work within the community and although insurance will cover some of the losses, it will take time and unfortunately it will never replace the monetary and sentimental value of a lifetime’s collecting, some items are no longer made.”
Ronnie admitted to being overwhelmed by the response which had raised £4,285 by the time the Press went to print.
“I am absolutely astounded by it,” he said. “I did say to my daughter I don’t want to do that. I don’t look for people’s generosity. I would rather help people than than people help me. I have never been one for relying on people to help me.
“People say we think it is great what you are doing but it is a way of living. I would find it difficult not to do it. Some of the offers have been fantastic. Guys offering work benches, tools. One guy said you can come and use my workshop for anything you want to do.
“The amount of people who have sent messages on Facebook and I have not had time to respond. I am trying to say thank you to everyone.”
Despite the loss of all his tools and equipment, Ronnie said his efforts would not stop.
“It is a big setback but it won’t put me off course from what I am doing. I will be right back and am going to keep doing this. I will have to slow things down but it won’t stop me from doing what has to be done,” he added.
“My priority is I have got a couple of wee projects lined up and I would like to get them on track to get some stuff finished. I have made promises to do things and want to make sure I can get that done.
“There is something coming up, right now we (the West Fife Woodlands group) are looking very shortly to start a massive project in Saline putting in a bridge to connect the path network all the way to Bogside.
“It has taken us three years to get to the stage where we are just now. There’s going to be a lot of work involved in that. A lot of work has already been done like meetings for it and funding.”
Anyone wanting to help with the crowdfunder can do so at https:// www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/helpronnie-help-the-community.