October 15, 2008

A Northland family have been left with a few photographs and a pile of ashes after their house was destroyed by fire.
All Kiri and Denis Saunders had left was a few family photographs of their 40 years together, snatched off the wall by a passer-by just before their 80-year-old kauri villa went up in flames and smoke.
By the time firefighters from Kamo and Hikurangi, just north of Whangarei, last Friday arrived at the isolated Helena Bay home, there was little left.
Mrs Saunders was working on a computer in her sleepout when she heard her grandchildren screaming, The New Zealand Herald reported today.
She ran outside to find them scrambling away from the blazing house. Her pregnant daughter Moana was also in the sleepout and ran to the house to grab whatever she could.
'I screamed at her to get out,' Mrs Saunders said. 'She called 111 then ran around the house unchaining the dogs, which were tied up close to the flames. A man driving down the road saw the fire, stopped and managed to rescue some old family photos that were hanging on the wall, before the whole place went up.'
The family wanted to thank the man who left without giving his name.
Mr Saunders was with friends at Ngahau, 30 minutes away, when he was called by his daughter. He said by the time he arrived home there was nothing he could do.
He said while the house was insured, its contents were not but he had been overwhelmed by support from locals.