The Greymouth Star has fielded numerous calls offering assistance after the family lost their home and all their possessions in a fire in Maimai.
A tearful Heeni Millar spoke of the nightmare that befell her family last Thursday.
"It was just one thing after another."
She and her brother were waiting at the Stillwater underpass on State Highway 7 after a trip to Greymouth when a speeding car coming the other way ploughed into them.
A third vehicle behind them was also damaged.
Ms Millar and her brother were both taken to hospital in Greymouth.
"I’m glad we took my car, a Holden sedan. We would have been worse off in his car."
Ms Millar suffered bruising when the airbag deployed, and her brother had whiplash.
"My partner [Braydon Main] rushed out the door [at Maimai] as soon as I rang him [about the crash]."
Upon their return home that evening, they found the house on fire and despite efforts by emergency services, it burned to the ground.
Their two pet dogs died in the blaze.
"We have nowhere to stay, we have a couple of pairs of pants and we have been offered heaps of kids’ clothes."
The family has been in the upper Grey Valley for "a wee bit" including in Ikamatua, and had been living at the rental home in Maimai for "maybe three or four months" while working on a dairy farm.
"We are staying at Somerville ... with my brother.
"The community have been really good.
"They have given us vouchers for food and my daughter, who attends Reefton Area School, got a few school clothes — the big problem at the moment is we have nowhere to put it.
"I am trying to be positive, but it’s hard."
Their priority as parents was to not worry their daughter, who turns 6 in November.
"We let her see the house the other day and she went a bit funny — she’s taken it a bit hard too."
It all stemmed from the accident at Stillwater, Ms Millar said.
"Everything would have been avoidable if the cops had asked us to go away instead of letting us sit at the give way."
A Givealittle page was being set up to help the family.
— Greymouth Star
