{"id":196861,"date":"2025-12-22T19:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T19:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/196861\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T19:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T19:39:08","slug":"wellington-family-lose-all-their-possessions-in-karori-house-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/196861\/","title":{"rendered":"Wellington family lose all their possessions in Karori house fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

She said the back deck of the home was ablaze and she rallied her mother, Martha, and her 11-year-old son, Yon, so they could escape.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe fire began around the back of the property but damage can be seen stretching to the front of the house. Photo \/ Melissa Nightingale<\/p>\n

\u201cI see my car and I want to go back to get my car key and they grab us, no returning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yon, who was playing on his computer when the fire began, said the incident was \u201cvery shocking\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a window and I saw a big fire,\u201d he said. \u201cI just run, run away from the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family still don\u2019t know how the fire started, but the house they were renting has been badly damaged. Charring can be seen stretching from the back of the property to the front entrance.<\/p>\n

Mary said they were now \u201clost\u201d with \u201cno direction\u201d, relying on the kindness of others to rebuild their lives after all their possessions were destroyed or damaged.<\/p>\n

They are staying in a property owned by the Karori Anglican Church on Fancroft St, and the church is collecting donations for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cA family in our community lost their home last night to a significant fire,\u201d the church said on Facebook after the incident. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, they have lost their entire house contents. We know many people are asking how they can help and your help is really needed. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you would like to support their immediate needs, please make a donation to Karori Anglican Churches 02-0500-0019955-00 reference \u2018fire\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family really appreciate your generosity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yon,Yon, 11, says he ran away from the house after this family were alerted to the blaze. Photo \/ Melissa Nightingale<\/p>\n

Mary said neighbours came out and offered them warm clothes, drinks and food as the house burned.<\/p>\n

They have been gifted plenty of clothes in the days since but must now work to rebuild all their other household items.<\/p>\n

The family are originally from Malaysia and have lived in New Zealand on and off for some years.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe house has been gutted, with all the family’s possessions damaged or destroyed. Photo \/ Melissa Nightingale<\/p>\n

Martha said she had already cried over the Hong Kong apartment fire in recent days, which killed at least 159 people,<\/a> and now had gone through her own ordeal. She said she was thinking about the fire every day.<\/p>\n

Anyone wishing to donate to the family can email accounts@karorianglican.org.nz for more information.<\/p>\n

A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokeswoman said the investigation into the fire is continuing.<\/p>\n

Melissa Nightingale<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She said the back deck of the home was ablaze and she rallied her mother, Martha, and her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,5263,4734,32319,121577,14772,44997,6259,2109,2079,34981,7813,71,305,1345,10053,78,121576,5268,9097,111,43,139,16546,69,121575,11590,13743,165,2846,26697,52,102],"class_list":["post-196861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-all","tag-angel","tag-backs","tag-banged","tag-burning","tag-clothes","tag-door","tag-family","tag-fire","tag-flames","tag-fled","tag-from","tag-have","tag-home","tag-house","tag-in","tag-karori","tag-lose","tag-must","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nothing","tag-nz","tag-possessions","tag-save","tag-sent","tag-their","tag-them","tag-warn","tag-wellington","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}