Two South Wairarapa families living together in a converted barn say it’s a miracle nobody was hurt after the building burned down last week.
The families, including five young children, have lost their shared home and years’ worth of renovation work in the unexplained blaze.
They said the “worst part” was seeing their children cry as they tried to comprehend the situation.
Aaron and Isabel Work bought a large property in Tauwharenīkau with their best friends Chris and Shannon Dean in 2024.
The rural property included a five-bedroom house and separate stables, both of which they planned to turn into Airbnb units to “set their families up for the future”.
They created an Instagram page to document their renovation progress over more than two years.
“We have grown our families here, the kids have been raised here together,” Shannon said.
On the morning of May 13, the stables - where the two sets of parents lived with their combined five children - mysteriously caught fire.
Isabel discovered the fire when she was driving home after dropping her children off at school.
“I saw smoke when I was about four minutes out from the house and that’s when I called the fire brigade,” she said.
Isabel was still on the phone to Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) when she texted the group, saying “the house is on fire”.
Aaron, Chris and Sharon all rushed home to find their stables ablaze, with the most damage occurring to the section where Work family stayed.
“It looks like a nuclear bomb went off and things have just dripped from everywhere,” Chris said.
FENZ said it was alerted to the fire at 8.30am and crews from Featherston, Greytown, Carterton and Masterton attended.
The families believed it may have been an electrical fire that started on the outside of the building.
A FENZ spokesperson confirmed the investigation into the cause was not yet complete, but said the property was “substantially damaged”.
None of the nine people living in the stables were home when it caught fire, and none of the animals living on the property were hurt, which the families said was a “miracle”.
Aaron said he felt especially fortunate after learning that a day after his home caught fire, a house fire in Christchurch killed a mother and her 3-year-old daughter.
“We don’t know what would have happened if all of our kids and all of us were in that building.”
A parent at the Works’ children’s school started a Givealittle page to help with immediate costs, which has raised $7200.
Shannon’s sister started a separate page to support her sister and Chris, which is sitting at $2700.
Meanwhile, the restaurant the families lived next to fed them dinners, their church sent books and toys for their children and the Featherston RSA was organising a fundraiser for them.
“We just feel incredibly blessed by the support of the community,” Aaron said.
He and his wife “sobbed” while trying to explain the fire to their children.
“Trying to explain to your 7-year-old and your 5-year-old that their house is gone, that their bedroom is gone, that all of their precious things are gone, was really emotional,” Aaron said.
The Deans had a 3-year-old toddler and a 10-month-old baby, which Sharon said was a “blessing” because they were too young to understand what was happening.
Both families were able to move into their other home, after Airbnb helped them cancel three months’ worth of bookings, while they find rental properties to move into.
They were waiting for a quantity surveyor to assess the full extent of the damage their home sustained but said they ultimately planned on rebuilding the stables.
Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.