'I was going to lose my home'

Farm worker Bill Neumann at the site of the fire that razed a two-storey barn on Sunday night and threatened the historic Whangaehu Homestead in the background. PHOTO/NATHAN CROMBIE

Firefighters battled through gales for hours to save a century-old homestead east of Masterton that was showered with flaming cinders from a blaze that destroyed a nearby barn on Sunday night.
Wairarapa principal rural fire officer Phill Wishnowsky said close to 30 firefighters from Masterton, Carterton, Tinui and Mauriceville fought the blaze for four hours from about 9pm on Sunday.
The two-storey barn was about 100 metres from the homestead, he said, and the fire that razed the structure was ignited by sparks carried on high winds from a nearby area where a controlled burn had been lit days earlier.
Mr Wishnowsky said two water tankers had been scrambled to the property and water also was drawn from a nearby creek to fight the blaze, which took until about 1am to contain.
Five firefighters and a water tanker stayed at the scene overnight and dampened down hot spots.
"It was a massive save and a huge effort under extremely trying conditions. The crews spent as much time spraying water on to the house as they did on to the shed," he said.
"If the firefighters hadn't done what they did, the house would have been flattened - guaranteed."
Homestead owner Jan White, who has lived at the property for about 16 months, lauded the firefighters for saving her home.
"At first there were only a few sparks blowing across. Next minute there were great big things happening - it was just like fireworks, only horizontal - some were like inch square flaming cinders going right over the top of the house," Mrs White said.
"I didn't think there would be a chance of them saving it. At one point I thought I was going to lose my home. I just couldn't see how they were going to contain it because the wind was just so strong. You could hardly stand up in it.
"It was dangerous just being here. I'd stored sheets of iron in the barn and there were sheets from the roof flying through the air as well. It really was scary."
She had only weeks earlier shifted her saddles and horse-riding gear from the barn but had lost her winter supply of wood in the blaze.
Close to a dozen neighbours had at first helped to fight the fire, hosing down the house and splashing water on its walls.
A small area of garden caught alight at her back porch where an ember landed among pea straw and firefighters took over from her neighbours and sprayed foam and water on the house.
"Those firefighters were amazing - just amazing. It's all thanks to them, and my neighbours who helped as well."
Mrs White said the former owner of the homestead was the late sculptor Ken Kendall, who before his death in 2012 had transformed the attic of the barn into a working studio for himself and visiting artists.
Kendall, who had joined the Order of St Francis, had thrown open his home to fellow artists and planned to establish a Franciscan retreat.
She said Kendall had commissioned architectural plans for the revamp of the barn, which had originally been used to house Clydesdale horses.
Mr Wishnowsky said the blaze was "a timely reminder to check the current and long-range weather forecasts before lighting a fire" and also to ensure any controlled burn was completely extinguished.