Solo parent loses possessions in fire

Press, 8 December 1976, Page 1

Solo parent loses possessions in fire

A Christchurch solo mother lost all her possessions when a fire swept through her State house in Hoon Hay yesterday. Mrs Janice Lake and the y< jest of her four children fled from their home at 7 McCarthy Street when the blaze broke out, just before 1 p.m. “We rushed across the road and rang the fire brigade,” a distressed Mrs Lake said later. “After that we could only watch helplessly. It was terrible.” The fire — fanned by a stiff breeze and aggravated by exploding gas fittings

— took less than 15 minutes to destroy the interior of the house, and all the family’s possessions, which were not insured. Mrs Lake said she had no idea how the fire started, “but it went through the place like a flash." The three - bedroomed brick dwelling was ablaze from end to end when firemen from the Sockbum and Spreydon stations arrived. The firemen were unable to save the house, but they did save the Lake family’s pet terrier — which was found hiding under a blazing bed. “He wasn’t breathing when we got him out. but we managed to revive him,” a Fire Brigade spokesman said. “The boys

were pleased. A life is a life.” The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals rushed the dog away in an animal ambulance, and he was recovering in an S.P.C.A. home last evening. Mrs Lake and her four children — aged between five and 12 — stayed last night with friends in a neighbouring street. They had lived in the house for less than a year. “I suppose our first job will be to find somewhere to live until we can get another State house, but we won’t be able to replace all the things we lost,” Mrs Lake said. Fire safety officers were still trying late yesterday to establish the cause of the fire.