Fire and Emergency New Zealand were alerted to a house fire in Matamata, Waikato, on July 6 at 2:30pm. Photo / Brooke Davy
Fire and Emergency New Zealand were alerted to a house fire in Matamata, Waikato, on July 6 at 2:30pm. Photo / Brooke Davy
A young family of four is counting the cost after a fire consumed their home and possessions.
Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) was alerted to the fire in Matamata about 2.30pm, on July 6.
In the house was 23-year-old Brooke Davy, her partner Mathew Jeffcoat, and their one-year-olddaughter, who had just woken up from her afternoon nap minutes before the house was engulfed.
Jeffcoat was taken to hospital for smoke inhalation and is now recovering at his parents’ home, where the family has been staying since the fire. The other two escaped unscathed.
Jeffcoat’s four-year-old daughter was at her mother’s place at the time of the fire.
The family left the burning house with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Speaking to Waikato Herald, Davy said the fire happened so quickly, and within 10 minutes their whole house was destroyed.
“We looked out the kitchen window at around 2.30pm and thought ‘Oh, there’s smoke’, and then it was ‘There’s smoke coming out of the top of our garage,” Davy said.
The aftermath of the fire in the living room area. Photo / Brooke Davy
“Mat ran to the door to get into the garage internally and he just saw flames ... he quickly closed all the doors in the house, and we ran our daughter across the road to my in-laws, who are luckily our neighbours.
“Within five minutes Mat thought about the gas bottles, turned them off because that’s where he could hear explosion sounds, and then we got the cars out of the driveway.
“By 2.40pm we just watched our house go up in flames, and it was gone.”
Davy said she couldn’t believe how fast fire can move and how vicious it can be until she saw it firsthand.
“We had no time to grab anything it all happened so fast. When Mat was closing the doors the fire was already in the house. When we got across the road that was it, the whole house was like ‘boom’,” she said.
“We were wailing on the side of the road and just watching it unfold, my mother-in-law said the sound of us just purely sobbing is something she will never unhear ... it was so awful.
“People stood there watching it like it was a show, I kept saying that this isn’t a show, and it’s our whole life.”
Davy said they lost so many special memories in the fire that are irreplaceable.
“Our daughter, this home is where all her firsts happened ... we brought her home from the hospital here, her baby bracelets and baby books, they’re just all gone,” Davy said.
“Mat’s nana had given him things before she passed away that were in the house and my own baby photos, too ... I can’t replace them.
“We didn’t even have enough time to grab our daughter’s snuggly (blanket) and getting her a new one wasn’t right for her because it doesn’t have her smell on it, it’s a weird time for her, too.”
The family’s been staying opposite their burnt house while they figure out their next steps, which Davy said was not easy.
The kitchen where the family first saw the smoke outside. Photo / Brooke Davy
“It’s heartbreaking. Every day we open the curtains and there is our house ... it’s so sad.”
The family rented the house for more than two years and were covered by insurance. Insurance would not cover everything, though.
Davy said that it wasn’t just about rebuilding the home, but rebuilding their whole lives.
“It’s so hard thinking about rebuilding everything from our home, to the furniture and clothes inside it, to basically our whole lives.
“It’s so hard ... right now our main focus is our kids and it’s been really emotional navigating this horrifying situation. You hear about all these fires, but you never think it’s going to happen to you.
“We have to be the best versions for our kids and we’ve tried to put all these emotions to the side and deal with the brunt of it ... it’s scary to think about when that bomb of emotions is going to tick because I think it hasn’t hit us yet.
“Our daughter just wants to go home, and we have no home. It’s been a very overwhelming time for us.”
Davy said her family was counting their blessings because they were all alive and okay, OK, but they were devastated at the long process of rebuilding.
Donations are being taken on a Givealittle page under the title ‘Help Matt, Brooke and the girls rise from the Ashes’, which has so far raised more than $4000.
Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.
