‘Miracle’ nobody perished in Ohau blaze

"A nuclear bomb has gone off."

That was how Janet Brown described her "slice of paradise", the once-idyllic Ohau Village, after fire tore through it on Sunday.

The blaring of a siren and a glance out the window were the first signs that something was wrong.

"We’ve got — had— these two big sliding windows that looked out to the mountains and it was all ablaze," she said yesterday.

"It was all orange — the whole sky."

Janet Brown. PHOTO: ODT FILES
Janet Brown. PHOTO: ODT FILES

Then the "terrifying night" began.

She woke everyone up, and gathered their things.

Her family did not live at Ohau permanently, and they were already packed up to return to Auckland the next day, she said.

As they fled, she turned and saw "the whole village on fire".

"I cannot believe nobody died. It’s a miracle."

They lost everything in the fire, she said.

"We’ll rebuild one day but we don’t know when.

"We love it here. It’s a very special place."

The village was busy because of school holidays, and locals did an incredible job in getting everyone out safely, she said.

"They are heroes."