Welcome Bay house fire: Man comes home from buying milk to find home alight

First, it was horror, and then panic set it. "Call the fire brigade!" was the desperate cry from David Jackson as he ran towards the flames coming from his house - the last thing he expected to see as he drove down Flinders Place to his home. He ran towards the fire but it wasn't long before he realised nothing could be saved. Within 30 minutes, the couple lost their home to the blaze which took firefighters four hours to extinguish on Sunday evening.

David Jackson spent the day on Sunday melting lead on his balcony with an electrical appliance to make fishing sinkers.

He put some more lead in before he made the three-minute trip to a Welcome Bay farm to buy some of its "amazing milk" and was driving back home within 20 minutes.

Then he saw flames coming from his balcony.

"Just horror ... it was just horror and panic," he said.

"I just slammed the brakes on and yelled out: call the fire brigade."

With his wife, Helen, in Hamilton, Jackson's thoughts jumped to Murphy, the family's maltese shih tzu, who was saved just in time.

Jackson has poor health and lives in constant pain and said Murphy would sit next to him when he was particularly sore and lick his leg.

"We wouldn't swap him with any of our possessions . . . if I was five minutes late we would have lost him."

Jackson tried going into the house, thinking of what he could save for his wife, but was forced away by the heat.

"I just couldn't, the flames were too intense by that stage."

So intense the material on his jersey melted slightly.

He was hit by a thick wall of smoke, with a horrible taste and indescribable smell.

"It was then I knew we lost the house," Jackson said.

Before firefighters arrived, three neighbours held hoses from different angles toward the house, just as desperate as Jackson was.

"The lounge and the kitchen was in singes and the rest of the house had smoke damage ... it's just so devastating," he said.

The house was insured but not the contents, and Jackson said it was the last thing he expected to happen.

He said the misjudgment on the shortness of the trip and the risk of the appliance was something he overlooked and he was riddled with regret and devastation.

The couple is currently living with Jackson's parents, who also live in Welcome Bay.

A Givealittle page has been set up for the couple who said they have felt "so supported" by the community.