A beloved Waiuku grandfather lost his life’s work, including his grandchildren’s handmade Christmas presents, “in a matter of minutes” after a nearby recycling facility went up in flames.
A master joiner by trade, Greg Belcher’s tools, projects, camping equipment and quad bike perished in a storage container at Waiuku Business Park when the recycling facility next door caught fire late Monday night.
He told the Herald the blaze began in the storage yard of Future Post, a company that recycles plastic waste to make into posts for farms and vineyards.
“It will affect at least three local businesses, and in a small town, local businesses rely on the locals and the locals rely on the local businesses too,” he said.
Belcher, who was raised in Tuakau and has lived in Waiuku for the past 25 years, has been woodworking “all his life” and accumulated a prized collection of specialist tools, stepdaughter Alexandra O’Hagan said.
He’d transferred his tools to the container when moving properties early this year, and it most recently became the storage place for Christmas presents that Belcher was quietly handcrafting for his eight grandchildren.
“My kids were hiding the Christmas presents in there so they can’t find them,” he said.
Belcher praised the volunteer firefighters from local brigades that mobilised to extinguish the fire.
“I lost stuff. You know, stuff can be replaced, but I’m just happy no one was hurt,” he said.
“It’s basically burning plastic, so a lot of fumes and stuff went into the air and hopefully no one gets crook from that.”
But with no insurance for his tools, the tradie has been left to rebuild his kit from scratch.
“It’s illegal to insure things twice in New Zealand. My tools were covered by my previous job, but I’ve just changed jobs, so they’re not covered yet.”
Included was specialist equipment that was “put away for when you’ve got a specific project that you would work on”, O’Hagen said.
“It just so happened that it was in the cross wires of next door going up in flames.”
The most upsetting aspect was not the material destruction, but the intangible value of Belcher’s professional possessions that had been lost.
“He grew up as a farm boy, you know, working hard on the farm and then went into woodworking. It’s been his career forever,” O’Hagen said.
“Christmas gifts and that, things like that can be replaced, but when it’s a lifetime of your work and things that you need to work with for your job, that’s where it’s gutting.”
O’Hagen said the fire had dealt both a financial and emotional blow to Belcher after an already tough year, and the whole family had been left gutted.
“It was just really upsetting, especially so close to Christmas,” she said.
“I think there’ll be a few people that now might be out of work and everything from this fire.
“It’s gut wrenching for the whole of Waiuku, to be quite honest.”
A Givealittle page has been set up by O’Hagen to raise money for new tools to replace those of Belcher’s that perished in the fire.
Acting Detective Inspector Chris Robson, of Counties Manukau CIB, said a search warrant was executed at a private property in the Waiuku area last night.
“A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the property and has been charged with arson,” he said.
“The fire has caused extensive damage.
“We would like to acknowledge the assistance from the public, local businesses and Fire and Emergency NZ in this matter, as well as the work of the Counties Manukau Crime Squad in being able to resolve this matter quickly.”
Two shipping containers that were involved in Monday night’s fire briefly re-ignited overnight around 3.30am this morning, but were quickly put out by responding crews.
The flare-up was not deemed suspicious.
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