A mother made a desperate bid with a garden hose to save her Island Bay house from going up in flames before the inferno destroyed her family of four’s “dream home”.
Schamet Horsfield, together with her husband Gray and two sons, escaped mostly unscathed from Monday’s blaze, which began in the garage but quickly took over the rest of the house.
She said the kindness of her neighbours and friends has helped bring the horror incident into perspective.
Now the family have started a Givealittle page to help with the costs of rebuilding their lives.
Horsfield, 51, was on the computer early on Monday evening when she heard the “bloody” smoke alarm go off and thought the device was being oversensitive.
“I was getting up and kind of annoyed, and then I heard screaming,” she said.
“I heard my boys screaming and I went out there and, oh my god, the garage was on fire.”
Horsfield was too emotional to speak about the cause of the fire, which has been ruled an accident.
“It was a bit stupid, but I went to grab the hose to try and put it out and that just did nothing,” she said.
The family fled the blaze, with Horsfield trying to go back to rescue her cat and her wedding album.
She remembered a friend who lost his home to a volcano eruption in Hawaii, who had said his biggest regret was not taking his wedding photos when he escaped.
Horsfield burned her hand while trying to go back and realised it wasn’t worth risking her life.
“My intuition, you know, that higher self part of you is like, ‘Schamet, no. Don’t you even think about this right now. You cannot do this. You will die.’ And I went, ‘Oh, yeah. Dying, leaving my children alone because I’m trying to rescue my kitty and the wedding album is probably not, you know, a good idea right now’.”
Days later, she is yet to find her beloved pet, called Thirteen. The family are desperately seeking sightings of the fluffy Himalayan cat in the suburb.
“I always told her not to go out, so she’s afraid of going out ... if she stayed in, she’s not alive, she’s under rubble somewhere.”
Horsfield miscarried a baby girl some years ago and said she felt as though Thirteen had become her “little girl”, so the loss of her pet was affecting her deeply.
“She follows me everywhere I go... she’s so beautiful and she’s so sweet.”
Nearby residents have set up traps and left out food for Thirteen, and Horsfield is hoping to get the word out to more people in the area.
The help of her neighbours had blown Horsfield away.
“The neighbours were so wonderful. They came out, the whole street came out with blankets. They covered me in, I think I had five blankets.”
They gave the family clothing, shoes and blankets for warmth, and helped care for them as they watched their home burn down.
“I have never, ever experienced this level of kindness and support,” Horsfield said.
“Our street is the best neighbourhood I’ve ever lived in.”
The love of the people around her was what motivated Horsfield to speak to the Herald about her ordeal.
“I want all of the neighbours that came to my support... I want them to read this article and their hearts to be full of love.
“We need more good news. Yes, a tragedy happened, it’s horrible. We’re all traumatised... [but] what came out of it was so beautiful.”
Gray’s family have given the Horsfields somewhere to stay until they can find a new home, and his workplace, Wētā, delivered a load of groceries including all the foods the boys liked, Gray’s favourite tea and Schamet’s favourite cheese.
“We always think that abundance is the dream home and the comfort and the bells and whistles and all that external stuff. The abundance is actually community. It’s connection, it’s family, it’s not all this external stuff,” she said.
“The external stuff can just go right up in a puff of smoke within an hour and then it’s all gone.
“When you have something like this happen, you get really clear on what is the most important thing. My family and my community are the most important things.”
The oceanview property on High St was Horsfield’s “dream home”.
“I actually manifested the house in detail,” she said, noting she was a spiritual person.
The house was exactly what they wanted, filled with their treasures from a lifetime of travel.
“I think that’s the most devastating part, is that it wasn’t a house, it was my home.”
Because of the cost of living and rising insurance prices, the Horsfields had recently lowered the amount their house was insured for and raised their excess.
“You just think it’s never going to happen to you.”
The family have started a Givealittle page to help rebuild their lives. The funds from the page will support the couple as well as their boys Octavius, 17, and Halifax, 14, and their dog, Snowy Starla.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice, and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.