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NARISSA KEY / SUPPLIED / Supplied
Robin and Lorraine Barnard first lost their home and possessions in the Petone floods of 1976. Now their Upper Hutt home has burned down.
Tragedy has struck an Upper Hutt couple again after they lost their home and all their possessions in a fire. 44 years after they lost everything in the Wellington floods of 1976.
Lorraine and Robin Barnard’s home at Tōtara Park in Pasadena Cres was one of two adjoining units that suffered major damage, after a fire started in the neighbor’s garage on Saturday morning at around 11:30 a.m.
The couple, both in their 80s, are now left with only the clothes they are wearing, some of Lorraine’s rings and her purse.
His car and all of his possessions, including prized family heirlooms such as a relative’s hand-carved walking stick and old photographs of his deceased relatives, were burned or significantly damaged by smoke and water.
NARISSA KEY / SUPPLIED / Supplied
Saturday’s fire damaged Barnard’s home and the neighbors next door.
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* Two houses badly damaged by the Upper Hutt fire
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The couple’s daughter, Belinda Barnard, said many of the sentimental items could never be replaced.
On Saturday morning, Lorraine said she was reading The Dominion Post and Robin was having a cup of coffee when the neighbor banged on the door yelling “fire, fire!”
“It just went up, because the houses were linked. Black smoke was coming out.
“I had to go down the road because I couldn’t see anything because the smoke was so bad. I could not stop shaking. But still, we are alive and that is the main thing.
NARISSA KEY / SUPPLIED / Supplied
Robin and Lorraine Barnard’s car after a fire ripped through their Upper
“It’s something you see on TV or in movies, but you don’t expect it to happen to you.”
The couple crossed the street without problems and were attended by neighbors while firefighters blocked the street and battled the blaze, which was extinguished at 12:30 p.m.
Belinda said her parents, who are very independent, are still in shock and struggling to come to terms with the loss of the home, which they themselves owned, and believed they would remain until their death.
“It is very sad to lose everything, just the clothes we had, that’s all we got.
Alexander Turnbull Library
A van lifts off a railroad track after the 1976 floods in Petone.
“You lose your car and your house, you lose all your independence,” Lorraine said.
It is the second time the couple have lost everything, after being forced to leave their home in December 1976, when the rain fell in torrents not seen in 50 years, with 153 millimeters recorded in 24 hours in Avalon, Lower Hutt.
A boy in Crofton Downs lost his life after one of many landslides crushed the building he was in and more than 100 families were evacuated.
The floods, which were labeled a 500-year event at the time, caused $ 19 million in damage, which would amount to more than $ 145.5 million today.
“I was five or six years old, so I vaguely remember it. It was school holidays and I just remember yelling ‘Mom, Mom, water is coming under the sliding door!’ ”Belinda said.
National Library / Things
A man stands in a car during the Petone flood in 1976.
While Robin was at work, Belinda, Lorraine, and the family dog were forced to flee when floodwaters entered their home. They were picked up by a stranger who helped bring them to safety.
After that, Belinda remembers going to a “great room” with her mom to pick up some donated clothes, after losing all her belongings.
A Givealittle page has raised about $ 500 for Robin and Lorraine after Saturday’s fire.
The couple’s cat, Snow, was originally missing, but has since been located and is being fed by neighbors, who cannot get close enough to him to grab it.
Now they wait for their insurance company and will look for a new place to live while they stay with the family.
Fire investigators are investigating the cause of the fire.
