Home gutted by fire during festival

Marsha Broeshart's McLeod Bay home was destroyed by fire.

A stick of incense left burning on a dressing table started a blaze that destroyed a McLeod Bay home and a family's entire possessions.

The incident on Saturday has a fire safety officer reiterating that people should not go out and leave anything burning - not even something as seemingly innocuous as incense.

Marsha Broeshart and her son Django returned home after a great day out at the Fritter Festival to find everything they owned lost to a fire caused by an incense stick falling on to a pile of clothes.

Marsha Broeshart was enjoying the party atmosphere at Whangarei's Fritter Festival on Saturday but while she was out her McLeod Bay home was destroyed by fire.

Ms Broeshart had been among people enjoying the atmosphere at the festival and caught on camera by the Northern Advocate.

She said it is heartbreaking to think that while she was having that wonderful time, and even as the photo was being taken, her house was possibly already on fire.

A younger son, who was home at the time and tried to douse the flames before fire crews arrived, was unhurt.

Apart from a pair of shoes, the only undamaged item salvaged from the ashes is a button off a coat that once belonged to her late father.

Ms Broeshart, originally from the Netherlands, said her father had been a firefighter.

Family photos, heirlooms, computer equipment, and clothes are gone.

The family has temporary accommodation and on Monday a friend drove Ms Broeshart to Pak'nSave in Whangarei to stock up the pantry with a $500 voucher the store had donated.

Ms Broeshart's niece has started a givealittle page to help the family get back on track.

"I am overwhelmed at people's kindness. You can't even begin to say thank you," Ms Broeshart said. "The people out at the Heads have been amazing, and thank God I've got really good boys.

"We will move on, we can get over this."

Ms Broeshart, who has a cleaning business at Whangarei Heads, said she intended going back to work yesterday to "normalise" life.

It is a fluke she still has a car, a vacuum cleaner and keys to clients' properties, she said.

Because it was raining at the time, she had driven her car to the end of the driveway to wait for the bus to the festival.

Her 16-year-old son and a friend had been away from the house for only about 15 minutes that afternoon when the incense fell out of its holder, Northland Fire Service risk manager Terry Bayliss said. When they returned the bedroom was ablaze. The boys smashed a window and tried to douse the fire with a garden hose before having to give up.

By the time fire crews arrived from McLeod Bay, Onerahi and Whangarei the house was fully ablaze.

Ms Broeshart said nothing prepared her for her first sight of the charred remains of the rented home the family moved into last October.

"Hearing about it is one thing, seeing it is another."

-Donations can be offered at https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/marshaandfamily