Source: Radio New Zealand
Police stand guard outside the fatal house fire. RNZ/Mark Papalii
The search for the body of a third child caught in a deadly house fire in Sanson is to resume this morning.
Four people died in the fire on Saturday afternoon.
The bodies of two children were recovered on Sunday night and were blessed by the family with karakia.
The body of the adult was removed earlier.
Police said their focus today will be on finding the third child.
By 6am, just under $95,000 had been raised for the mother of the children through a Givealittle page.
The page described the fire as a “devastating loss beyond measure” and their goal was to provide the family with the “space and security needed to grieve in solitude”.
“In the midst of this unimaginable grief, she also lost her home and everything she owned. She is facing the hardest journey possible, stripped of her physical security, while navigating the deepest emotional pain.”
Neighbour describes seeing the fire as it happened
A neighbour told RNZ he was working at his home on Saturday, when someone noticed smoke from the nearby property.
“We all came out to have a look and we saw a horrific amount of smoke coming from about 300 metres away, where the neighbour’s house is – pretty thick black billowing smoke.
“It was a very, very windy day and we knew it wasn’t any kind of controlled fire. We knew it was some sort of what we considered to be a house fire at that stage.”
He said, over an hour, many firefighters turned up, attempting to put the blaze out.
An hour after it started, the blaze and billowing smoke was still visible. He believed it took two hours for firefighters to put the fire out.
“They were still dousing it down and there was just very slight wisps of smoke coming from the property two hours after it started.”
He said State Highway One near the property did not open until 8pm Saturday.
The neighbour said that, during the fire, he was “pretty shocked” at what was happening before his eyes.
“Nothing we could do about it and just a feeling of kind of despair, I guess just watching what was going on.
“Knowing that a young family was potentially losing everything they owned and knowing that is going to be a very, very hard place to come back from.
“Just the thought of not knowing whether everybody was alright or not, and subsequent to that we found out, that isn’t the case, which has made things 10 times worse.”
Police are not looking for anyone else in relation to the fire.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
