Birthplace, family history perish in Pakotai inferno

Phillip Beazley wants only one thing for Christmas - a house.
His family home at Pakotai, 48km north-west of Whangarei, went up in smoke last week and a dejected Mr Beazley is wondering how he can replace it.
"I need a house. It doesn't have to be brand new - just liveable," he said.
His eyes were still in pain from the flames and smoke they encountered when he woke shortly after 1am on Friday fearing the noise he could hear in his 20-year-old daughter Carla's bedroom could only mean an intruder had entered the house.
But when he opened the bedroom door, he found an inferno was making short work of the tinder-dry timbers of the modest weatherboard home, which his late father had built alongside Mangakahia Rd about 1935.
Phillip shut the door and got his wife Joanne outside where Carla had made her escape.
He then returned through thick smoke to help his sons Robert, 17, and Leonard, 16, to safety.
The fire was reported at 1.30am, but the house had virtually burnt to the ground by the time fire crews from Whangarei and Kaikohe and a water tanker from Kaikohe arrived.
Fire safety officer Lindsay Murray said the cause of the blaze was still being investigated.
The Beazley family spent the rest of the night at a neighbour's home and when the sun came up, Phillip and Joanne drove to Whangarei, where Work and Income helped finance them into a caravan, now parked by the ashes of their home.
Mr Beazley, 49, is unemployed except for part-time work in the Northern Wairoa kumara fields.
He said the family had been offered accommodation in local marae, but he badly wanted to replace the house where he had been born.
He and his family escaped the fire with only the clothes they were wearing.
All their possessions were lost and Mr Beazley was particularly grieving the loss of family photographs and some personal carvings.
He had not expected any public response to the family's plight and appeared puzzled and very grateful toward local people who had given clothes, a tent, a refrigerator and "a mutton" to put in it.
If a generous Santa has another home which the Beazley family could shift on to their section, messages can be left on (09) 433-1816.