Anita Moses points out her homemade repair for a kitchen ceiling hole, which demonstrates how unfinished the house was when she was told by Kāinga Ora to move back in. Photo / Denise Piper
Anita Moses points out her homemade repair for a kitchen ceiling hole, which demonstrates how unfinished the house was when she was told by Kāinga Ora to move back in. Photo / Denise Piper
A Northland mother whose 9-year-old suffers from rheumatic fever is worried Kāinga Ora made her family move back into their house while it was still being repaired for smoke damage.
Anita Moses fears the move put her son’s health at risk from the smoke, but Kāinga Ora said the family would not have been allowed back into the house unless it was safe.
Moses has lived in the Tikipunga Kāinga Ora house with her three sons, aged 9, 13 and 20, for about a year.
On July 9, she was cooking a breakfast treat of deep-fried chips for the start of the school holidays.
While Moses quickly went to the bathroom, the oil caught fire with flames spreading as they were sucked up by the extractor fan. Fortunately, the house had working smoke alarms, which quickly woke everyone.
“I went to the loo and heard the alarm go off - I came running out, but it was already in flames,” she said. “I just started yelling to my kids ‘get out’.”
The home was not too badly fire damaged - mostly just around the stovetop and rangehood - but the whole house suffered extensive smoke damage.
Kāinga Ora put the family in a motel for a little over a week while a contractor repaired the damage.
During this time, Moses kept an eye on repair work to make sure the house would be safe to move back into.
But on Wednesday last week, the day the family had to move out of the motel, the home still smelt strongly of smoke and everything was covered with soot - including the walls, curtains and kids’ bed covers.
Moses says her house was covered in black ash from the fire, such as this soot in her kitchen drawer, requiring her own elbow grease to fix.
Moses set about cleaning by scrubbing the walls, ceilings, floors and cabinets to get rid of the soot and washing bed covers and curtains. She started at 6am on Wednesday and roped in her 20-year-old son and youngest brother to help.
“We just went hard-out scrubbing. I know from me wiping down the walls, I was choking.”
Moses said she contacted Kāinga Ora to raise concerns about the unfinished work, and impact on her son’s rheumatic fever, but did not get anywhere.
She was so worried about how the lingering smell would affect her unwell son, she sent him and his 13-year-old brother to stay with their aunt in Auckland - scraping together some petrol money to give to her sister for picking them up.
The two boys came back on Sunday, when Moses was still busy cleaning.
She is annoyed Kāinga Ora did not want to pay for the family to stay in the motel any longer, while the work was finished.
Moses says her house was in a poor state of repair when Kāinga Ora wanted the family to move back in, with this hole in the kitchen ceiling.
The contractor also did not do a good job and ended up breaking a leg on her dining table, she said.
“It was my elbow grease. Even the kitchen [clean-up] was pathetic. I was on my hands and knees trying to scrub it off.
“You can still see smoke damage under the paint; there’s not really much care in the workmanship.”
Moses said the house also had a hole in the kitchen ceiling, from which ash was falling onto the stovetop, and scaffolding left outside. She eventually covered the hole with some cardboard, so the ash did not fall into her cooking.
She wants Kāinga Ora to reimburse her for the time she spent cleaning, and reimburse the petrol money she paid her sister.
Kāinga Ora Northland regional director Jeff Murray said repairs were underway within 24 hours of the fire, while the family stayed in a motel.
“Following the fire, which was caused by unattended cooking on the stovetop, we worked really hard to repair the home as quickly as possible, while also prioritising the wellbeing of the whānau,” he said.
Murray said it was safe for the family to move back into the house on Wednesday, with just a few minor jobs left to be completed.
“We would not have agreed to let the family move back into the home if it wasn’t safe to do so,” he said.
However, he was not aware the 9-year-old was suffering from rheumatic fever and said on Friday there would be follow-up.
“We were not informed by our customer their child suffers from rheumatic fever. Now that we are aware, we will follow up with the customer to see if they require any additional support.”
Murray said the scaffolding was left in place to complete repairs to the rangehood and rangehood vent, which melted in the fire. A new vent suited to the specific roofing had been ordered and work would be carried out as soon as it arrived.
On Monday, Moses said Kāinga Ora had not followed up about her son’s rheumatic fever. She has a document signed by her Kāinga Ora case manager showing the agency was previously aware of his condition.
Denise Piper is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.
