Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Owners return to fire ruin

Joseph Aldridge and Amy McGillivray
Bay of Plenty Times·
28 Nov, 2012 05:06 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

The owners of a house ravaged by fire are counting themselves lucky.

Linda Vidanage and her husband, Sarath, were out when their Omokoroa home caught fire about 5pm on Monday.

More than a dozen firefighters spent about three hours battling the blaze on Harbour View Rd.

The top floor of the house was destroyed and there was serious water damage to the ground floor but Mrs Vidanage is looking at the bright side.

"We just came back from the South Island a funeral of a 15-year-old boy so this feels like nothing compared to that, that's a real tragedy.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We'll deal with it and it will come back better than ever probably." The main thing is that no one was hurt, she said.

"When I came home at ten after five the street was blocked and I was met and they said 'you have to turn around' and I looked forward and I said 'I think that's my house'.

"First of all they asked me if I was Sarath and I actually thought because they know his name something had happened to him, but it was just the house, it wasn't him."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A huge amount of support from the neighbourhood has also lifted the couple's spirits.

"All the neighbours came, I mean we would have had 20 beds to sleep in last night, so we're all sorted in that way, we have a lot of support," Mrs Vidanage said.

Neighbours and friends were at the house yesterday afternoon, helping the Vidanage's to pack their remaining possessions.

"We're just grateful, we're just grateful that the firemen saved the big TV, the neighbours were all here when we weren't and got the computers out, a lot of things were saved, so we're just grateful."

Mrs Vidanage said there was extensive damage to their home of 15 years.

"Upstairs there's three bedrooms and a bathroom, all gone and downstairs it looks destroyed to me with the water damage. It doesn't look salvageable to me but the insurance is talking about it."

She thought an electrical fault had started the fire.

"That's the only thing I can think of... "

Tauranga fire safety officer Ken McKeagg said he had not yet established the cause of the fire.

He said the upstairs floor collapsed so he could not get up there to investigate.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mr McKeagg said he would be returning today with a map of the house to talk to owners and find out what was stored upstairs that may have caused it.

Omokoroa volunteer firefighters were assisted by fire crews from Greerton and Waihi.

In total, there were 18 firefighters on site.

"When our guys got there she was blazing from end to end on the upper floor," Mr McKeagg said.

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times
|Updated

Thursday's mega-strike: What you need to know

22 Oct 12:03 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Top Tauranga sausages named among New Zealand’s best

21 Oct 11:21 PM
Bay of Plenty Times

'Car-alition': MPs take seven-hour cross-party 'roadie' after flight canned

21 Oct 09:23 PM

Sponsored

Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable

22 Sep 01:23 AM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Thursday's mega-strike: What you need to know
Bay of Plenty Times
|Updated

Thursday's mega-strike: What you need to know

Where BoP strike events will be and how schools and health services will be impacted.

22 Oct 12:03 AM
Top Tauranga sausages named among New Zealand’s best
Bay of Plenty Times

Top Tauranga sausages named among New Zealand’s best

21 Oct 11:21 PM
'Car-alition': MPs take seven-hour cross-party 'roadie' after flight canned
Bay of Plenty Times

'Car-alition': MPs take seven-hour cross-party 'roadie' after flight canned

21 Oct 09:23 PM


Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable
Sponsored

Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable

22 Sep 01:23 AM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP