{"id":323719,"date":"2026-03-11T07:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/323719\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T07:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:00:09","slug":"otahuhu-house-fire-grieving-widows-second-tragedy-after-fatal-fire-in-sleepout-claims-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/323719\/","title":{"rendered":"\u014ct\u0101huhu house fire: Grieving widow\u2019s second tragedy after fatal fire in sleepout claims life"},"content":{"rendered":"
Police investigating the fire determined there are \u201cno suspicious circumstances\u201d. A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson said on Wednesday \u201cthe report into the cause of the fire has not yet been completed\u201d.<\/p>\n
Chandra said she was informed by her sister-in-law about the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018Subhag, this is your house?\u2019 I said, \u2018Oh my God, what\u2019s wrong?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
When she realised what had happened, she \u201cstarted yelling\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was all the more upsetting after the death of her husband Roger in September last year at the age of 83. <\/p>\n
One person was found dead inside a sleepout at the \u014ct\u0101huhu property. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so upset because I lost everything,\u201d she said. \u201cI lost my husband and I lost everything in the studio.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still grieving for him \u2026 I did everything for him. I looked after him in bed. So it\u2019s too painful for me. When I pass the place [of his] funeral, I can\u2019t talk properly. I always think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chandra said she had a \u201cterrible feeling\u201d when she first arrived home from her trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cStraight away I just went [into] the garage \u2026 Oh my God, I was just yelling. I was very terrified.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cause of the fatal fire at an \u014ct\u0101huhu property is still unknown. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
Chandra, who lived alone after her husband died, said she reluctantly agreed to let the woman stay with her in the garage-turned-studio accommodation at the rear of her property. <\/p>\n
She said the woman stayed for one week before begging to stay with her again. <\/p>\n
Chandra agreed, thinking the woman would be helpful while she was overseas.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe [would] just come and go. One week she stayed \u2026 and then [the] second week she went to [a] friend\u2019s place. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe begged me \u2026 to come again. I just gave [her] a chance because I was going to Fiji.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just [thought] she will be supportive for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chandra didn\u2019t know the cause of the fire but said the woman staying in the sleepout was a smoker.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe smokes on the chair as well all the time. I told her not to. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t know her properly. That\u2019s my mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police investigating the fire determined there are \u201cno suspicious circumstances\u201d. A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[174704,74,46300,10712,2562,634,11784,2079,62821,1964,10053,10109,78,424,111,43,139,69,8244,312,8466,82113,6100,36653,94401,12628,8496,159090,1354],"class_list":["post-323719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-68yearold","tag-after","tag-broke","tag-claiming","tag-claims","tag-death","tag-fatal","tag-fire","tag-grieving","tag-guest","tag-house","tag-husband","tag-in","tag-life","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-recent","tag-says","tag-second","tag-sleepout","tag-still","tag-terrified","tag-thuhu","tag-tragedy","tag-upset","tag-widows","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323719","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=323719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}