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A family in Geraldine is coming to terms with the loss of a lifetime of toys, tools and memories after a recent blaze.
James Blok was on a gardening job on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 28, when a fire started in the attached garage at his Mackenzie St home.
As the fire was rapidly growing, in the front of the house his wife and kids were completely unaware of what was happening.
Despite three working smoke alarms located throughout the house, the only sign that something was amiss was the dog barking frantically at the back door.
His 11-year-old daughter stopped vacuuming to let the dog out, but the dog refused to leave.
The property backs on to Geraldine High School, and the alarm was raised when staff members going to the gym spotted the flames.
Mr Blok said that by the time the fire was noticed “it would have been significant”.
“Another five minutes, and it would have been really bad.”
School staff and neighbours rushed to the house to get the family and their dog out, and dragged gas bottles away.
The Geraldine Volunteer Fire Brigade quickly responded to the incident, assisted by crews from Washdyke, Temuka and Timaru.
Through their combined efforts, the crews prevented what could have been a far more devastating outcome.
Despite stopping the fire from spreading further through the house, they would not be able to live in it for some time and had been searching for a rental house, Mr Blok said.
The fire destroyed the garage and porch area, and caused fire damage to the roof cavity above the children’s bedrooms, causing the girls’ bedroom ceiling to cave in. The remainder of the house sustained extensive smoke and heat damage.
Rafters visible from outside the building — closest to the garage — were almost completely destroyed, and the water in the roof cavity had begun to drain soot-coloured water down through the light fittings.
There was damage from heat and smoke around the windows and vents.
A week after the fire, passersby could still smell the fire from the street.
“It smells terrible,” he said.
He was dressed in borrowed clothes from a friend, as the family’s clothes needed repeated washing with special solutions (and possibly dry cleaning) to remove the soot and toxins.
“I think its the smell that’s stuck with me.
“You just smell of smoke.
“It’s acrid and it rests in your clothes.”
At the end of his driveway, the garage — which was once crammed full of sporting equipment, camping gear, power tools, landscaping equipment, board games and memories — was now empty.
Even his gravel bike’s aluminium frame had disappeared in the heat of the blaze.
Things outside the shed had been incinerated, like his kayak, which had caught fire after the clearlight in the back porch had dripped molten plastic over it.
The trampoline in the backyard had been three metres from the blaze, but it had been left buckled by the heat.
In the empty shed there was a pile of half-burnt books, and a blade from his drop saw which sat on remnants of a motor, along with a few half-destroyed power tools.
Having four children, the garage had served as the perfect place to store all of their entertainment.
One of those was his well-loved and cared for Lego collection — Lego he had collected since he was a small boy, and while it might no longer have been brand new, it was irreplaceable, he said.
“I had flatpack boxes and all the instructions.
“What makes me feel sick, as a parent, is that we’d confiscated it and put it out there because it hadn’t been picked up.
“You think you are doing the right thing, and then something like this happens and you get hit by the parent guilt.”
He had learnt a lot from the blaze, namely that garages and kitchens were the most common places for fires to start.
Mr Blok encouraged people to get a fire alarm in their shed.
He had also learnt the placement of smoke alarms mattered.
“A fire in the roof cavity won’t trigger a smoke alarm in your bedroom until the roof starts to collapse.”
His wife was standing waiting for the fire service watching smoke pour out of the roof and wondering why the smoke alarms were not going off, he said.
It took minutes for them to activate.
“At 2am it may not have been enough time to get out.
“We are insured, but we still don’t know the final costs. We definitely took a big hit on the contents.
“Life happens and you accumulate stuff, and you put off getting things assessed for their value. Insurance is boring, but sometimes boring stuff is important.”
He was surprised by how inexpensive a premium smoke system was, compared to all of your belongings “disappearing into the ozone layer”.
“Family will be getting them for Christmas this year.”
He was thankful to the supportive community which had looked after the family during and after the blaze.
He said their minister and friends from church had arrived immediately, the school opened up an emergency headquarters for the family in the staffroom and a friend had started a Givealittle page.
It had been hard accepting the help when there were others struggling too, but his family were overwhelmed by the love and generosity of the community.
The support they had received already was “incredibly humbling”.
It had proved to him what a caring community they were a part of.
“It shouldn’t take a tragedy, but it does,” he said.
“The firies were awesome … their response, and saving what they could.
“The fact they saved the house.
“The fire inspectors were great.”
They were still unsure what caused the blaze, but thankful they only lost “stuff”.
Many people have been reaching out with offers of unused goods, but the family were not sure what they needed at the moment.
Any donations of goods could be registered at St Andrew’s Church in Geraldine.