A Yambou family that was planning to move into a four-bedroom concrete house this weekend saw that plan go up in smoke on Saturday when the house was gutted by fire.
Justin Marks, a 39-year-old self-employed trucker, told iWitness News, on Thursday, that the Electrical Inspectorate had examined the burnt-out house and had found no electrical faults.
He said he had become even more suspicious about the cause of the blaze when he found a stone amidst the debris on Sunday.
“So, in my own thinking and knowledge, it is like, to me, somebody used the stone and pelt it and broke one of the glass windows and lit the house afire,” Marks told iWitness News.
Marks said that he called the police back on Sunday morning and showed them the stone and they told them not to enter the property because they had to conduct further investigation including having the electrical wiring inspected — which was done on Wednesday.
Marks said that the house belongs to one of his aunts who is living overseas and had been occupied by an uncle until his death on Christmas Day.
Marks, along with his girlfriend and his 8-month-old daughter were planning to move into this house this weekend.
He said that he cleaned up the property two weekends ago.
“We were organising to move in for this Sunday. But the Saturday night now, the house caught fire.”
He said the relocation was necessary as his mother, where he currently lives, is renovating the upper floor of her two-story home, and has moved to the ground floor.
Marks said he was in Peruvian Vale around 9 p.m. on Saturday when he got a call from a relative who lives close to his aunt’s house, saying it was on fire.
He said he hustled to the house and used a hose to try to put out the blaze but the fire was already out of control.
Marks told iWitness News that four fire trucks responded to the blaze but none of them was able to get close to the house because the road is narrow and there is a lot of overhanding trees.
“But the police came and they took the hoses from us and helped us to out the fire but everything already burnt – furniture, bed, everything.”
He said the house was fully furnished and his mother was also storing some of her belongings in it.
“The whole roof burn out, the furniture, wall cracked up, the flooring burst up like somebody used a (demolition hammer) and crack up the floor. It is in a terrible state.”
Marks said that he would just have to stay at his mother’s house for the time being.
“I don’t know if I would get a little help to build it back. I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t know,” he told iWitness News.