The extensive damage caused by Wednesday's blaze at the property on Staniforth Rd near Mangawhai. Photo / Supplied
The extensive damage caused by Wednesday's blaze at the property on Staniforth Rd near Mangawhai. Photo / Supplied
Police checkpoints haven't hampered the generosity of Mangawhai locals who dropped essentials at the border to help a family in the Auckland region whose home was devastated by fire.
Family matriarch Karen was bowled over by the coastal community's kindness after a blaze, fuelled by Wednesday's blustery winds, decimated herson's house bus and a kitchen caravan with all their food.
"Once the fire got quite intense, it incinerated his bus to the ground, destroying all his belongings."
The fire took hold at the Staniforth Rd property, less than 3km south of the Kaipara-Auckland border, around 6pm on Wednesday night.
"I saw some smoke drifting and didn't think anything of it at all," Karen said.
She put it down to chimney smoke or someone "crazy" having lit a fire despite the strong westerly winds.
"Five minutes after that my son called out, 'Fire! Fire!'."
Karen raced out of her bus to help her son and check that a goat chained near the burning caravan and roaming flightless ducks on the property were all safe.
"We went over to where the caravan was starting to burn, it was picking up speed ... we're on top of the hill so there was quite a breeze up there," she said.
The pair hurled buckets of water on the growing blaze but were hindered by the property's lack of access to free-flowing water.
"The fire brigade got here just in time to save another one of my buses next to the fire."
Within 10 minutes crews from Mangawhai and Wellsford volunteer fire brigades had arrived on the scene and were able to extinguish the well-involved blaze within the hour.
The remains of a caravan that had formed part of the Auckland family's home and was destroyed in Wednesday's fire. Photo / Supplied
Karen said her 45-year-old son had been able to grab his laptop and other electronics but the rest of his belongings went up in smoke.
"All he had left were the clothes he was standing in," Karen said.
On Thursday she put out the call for donations of bedding and essential items people could spare via the Magical Mangawhai Facebook page.
"We're gobsmacked," she said about the wave of generosity the post was met with.
Karen had spent Thursday collecting donations of clothes and bedding dropped at the Coal Hill Rd border checkpoint and brought through to the other side by police on-site.
"I've had a lot of support – people have been ringing me non-stop, texting me, messaging me asking do you need this or that."
People had arranged to provide the family with dinner, as well as food for their animals.
"It has been overwhelming and beautiful to see such generosity. I know why they call it magical Mangawhai now," Karen said.
Mangawhai chief fire officer Rob Leslie said windy conditions had made extinguishing the blaze more challenging.
But the crews worked "great" together, despite having to maintain their distance due to the Northland and Auckland regions' different alert levels.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation but Leslie said it had started in the kitchen caravan.
He urged anybody living or staying in a caravan with cooking equipment involving gas to be extra mindful of safety precautions.
