A house fire north of Oamaru has left a teenage renter with nothing but ashes as he was not able to retrieve any of his possessions at the time – nor does he have contents insurance to protect his possessions.
Dallas Thomson, 19, was working in a dairy farm when he received a call informing him that the three-bedroom house he and another person had rented for a month was on fire.
“I thought ‘is this a p...-take?’ I was actually at home about five or 10 minutes beforehand - I got the call and then shot back. I was kind of speechless,” Thomson told Otago Daily Times.
“I was thinking I was one of those people that kind of thinks this won’t happen to me. I drove past the gap in the fence and thought ‘oh my God, the house is actually on fire’. I just couldn’t believe how fast it got up.”
John Smalls, risk management officer for Central and North Otago at Fire and Emergency New Zealand, investigated the scene. However, they still haven’t found the exact cause of the fire so they will continue to investigate with the aid of an insurance investigator.
“I’ve got what I think is a point of origin and I’ve got a couple of potential causes,” Smalls said.
Smalls advised homeowners and renters to be more cautious when it comes to fire hazards and take out insurance for their possessions.
