Fire destroys heart of a family

By THERESA GARNER and ELIZABETH BINNING

A close family were last night struggling to come to terms with the loss of three children and their grandmother in a house fire.

Seven people from three generations of the Zonneveld family were sleeping in a two-storey wooden house in Waihi when fire broke out just after 1am yesterday.

Only three escaped.

Among the dead are 11-year-old Jenny Zonneveld and her 7-year-old brother, Jason Zonneveld.

They had been staying with their uncle Colin Zonneveld, 37, and his family while their parents, Max and Diane Zonneveld, were on a fishing trip.

Their cousin Michaela Zonneveld, the 7-year-old daughter of Colin Zonneveld, also died in the blaze with Colin's and Max's mother Jeanette Zonneveld, known to her grandchildren as Oma. She had been visiting from Tauranga.

Colin and his young son Shayne, who is 9, escaped from the house by jumping out a top-storey window.

His partner Sue O'Sullivan, 34, also managed to escape, but is critically ill in Waikato Hospital.

The family's black labrador also died.

A friend said that grieving friends and family, including Jeanette's husband, Albert, had gathered at the home of Max and Diane at Pyes Pa yesterday.

Shayne, the only child to survive, was there with his mother, Colin's former wife.

"They based their life around the kids and they were a really close family. The kids always came first," the friend said last night.

Colin, Max and another brother, Karl, worked together at the boatbuilding firm Impact Fibreglass in Tauranga.

"They are an awesome family, who always have an open door. They are amazing people," the friend said.

The children were "brilliant".

"They were outdoorsy kids, into everything. They were always outside playing."

Their grandmother Jeanette was "the sort of grandmother that every child would want".

Emergency service workers say the 70-year-old house, situated on a one-acre block in Waihi, was totally engulfed by the time fire engines arrived at Trig Rd North, just after 1am.

Neighbour Mark Orchard tried frantically to help Ms O'Sullivan by spraying her with the garden hose after she leaped from the burning house.

The first to arrive at the scene, he woke to the sound of Colin Zonneveld frantically banging on the front door.

"He was saying his house was on fire. I ran up to the house with him but we couldn't get anywhere near it."

Minutes earlier, Colin had woken to the screeching sound of smoke alarms and dense black smoke.

The house was engulfed in flames, so he and his son jumped out of a window and on to the roof of a nearby shed.

"He said it was just that hot. He grabbed his son and jumped. That's all he could do."

Ms O'Sullivan, a popular woman who owns Waihi's Farmhouse Cafe, also jumped from the second floor but she was badly burned and unconscious by the time Mr Orchard and Colin arrived back at the house.

"We just ran the garden hose on her until it burned off from the side of the house," said Mr Orchard. "Then we went and got bucketsof water from home."

Ms O'Sullivan was flown to Waikato Hospital, where she remains in a critical condition in intensive care.

Colin Zonneveld and his son were taken to Thames Hospital, but were discharged in the morning and travelled to be with Ms O'Sullivan in Hamilton.

According to a feature published in the Hauraki Herald last year, Ms O'Sullivan had bought the Farmhouse Cafe two years ago.

She returned to Waihi for "love", and has been with Colin for around four years.

She had wanted to set up a place where people could relax, and prided herself on knowing the names of all her customers. The restaurant is a focal point in Waihi, with its distinctive Ma and Pa mannequins that sit outside every day.

Ms O'Sullivan is known as a popular local with a vivacious and happy personality.

She had lived in Waihi for two years until she was 10, and had also spent about seven years in England.

Yesterday firefighters were still dampening the smouldering family home, which was mostly reduced to a pile of charred rubble and two brick chimneys.

The intensity of the fire had melted the bumper of a ute and parts of a boat parked several metres away from the house. Nearby trees, including a tall palm, were blackened.

Waikato-Bay of Plenty regional fire commander Bill Butzbach said it was one of the worst fires for a number of years, although the family had working smoke alarms.

"I can't remember when we last had so many [deaths] in one fire."

He said smoke alarms were an invaluable safety measure but could not always prevent tragedy.

The fire had spread very fast and most of the bedrooms were on the second floor, so it was likely the sleeping occupants did not have enough time to escape.

Mr Butzbach said the fire highlighted the need for sprinkler systems and for people to practise escape plans, especially when they only bought the property seven months ago after moving from Waihi Beach.

The man they bought the villa from was one of the first on the scene and travelled in the ambulance with Colin Zonneveld to Thames Hospital.

"He was calm last night but it hit him more when he was in the hospital," said the man, who would not be named.

Heather Watters, a neighbour from Waihi Beach, said the family were the "perfect neighbours" with lovely children.

She recalled watching Michaela playing on her bike and trying to keep up with her older brother and his friends.

"She was such a little wee kid but she had more guts all the boys put together. She was twice as fast as the boys ever rode."

Bruce Aitken, principal at Waihi Beach Primary School, said all his staff were devastated by the loss of the young girl and their thoughts were with the surviving family members.

It was too early to discuss a special service for her, but a support team would be brought in today to help staff and other students to deal with the tragedy.

Firefighters who attended the blaze will be offered counselling to help them cope with the traumatic scene they encountered.

Local volunteer firemen from the Waihi and Waihi Beach brigades said they were shocked by the sight that greeted them when they arrived at the fire.

They said discovering the bodies of the children was something they would never forget.