Before dawn this morning, a home burnt down on Rasta Street in the Port Loyola area. It happened at 4:30 when most of the city is still asleep and as Jacqueline Godwin found out today - so was the homeowner, Levi Coffin. Here is his story.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
There was nothing fifty seven year old Levi Coffin could do but watch thirty years of his life go up in flames. Coffin says he was sleeping when he was awakened by a strange sound. That’s when he saw the blaze.
Levi Coffin, Fire Victim
“I heard sounding cracking up in the bush behind the house. Over here I looked and I saw a brightness and so I said a fire was starting at the back there and I ran down and ran behind there. I was trying to get some water but by the time I ran out here and tried to get back inside the fire had covered the whole front.”
The fire totally destroyed a two bedroom house and a one room building.
Jacqueline Godwin,
It spread quickly?
Levi Coffin,
“It spread quickly and I just wait until the pump come and I tried to out it.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
But it was too late.
Levi Coffin,
“It was too late because this one was already burnt down. Nothing I saved. I had a new brand electric saw I bought from Hofius and I was going to work with today and that burnt up in the fire. I never used it even one day; my electric saw and my drill.”
Equally sad is that the only money Levi Coffin had to help him get immediate provisions was also destroyed.
Levi Coffin,
“I got $125 on me. I took $10 and I went to the gas station to buy a coke and I stuffed the balance under the little shed part at the top with the money in there because I don’t like to go out there with lot of money because if people see you with money they will follow you and they might try to knock me out. So I said I will leave the $125 here and I took the $10. But the $10 I had in my pocket and I left the pants there and that burnt up and the other part, the $125, burnt up in the house.”
But what caused the blaze? The fire is still being investigated but all indications are that it started from outside the buildings and by a fire hearth that Levi Coffin did his cooking on. Coffin suspects a burning coal may be responsible.
Levi Coffin,
“Everything was turned off but it started from outside by the old fire hearth. I never expect fire would come. I don’t know if a fire coal blew somewhere and it just slowly built up over time with the breeze blowing and blowing and then when I conscious, it was too big for me to control. When I went around there the fire was higher than me. I tried to get a stick to calm it down but it was coming up more.”
Presently Levi Coffin has sought shelter with family members until he can get the necessary assistance to rebuild. Jacqueline Godwin reporting for 7NEWS.
The house was not insured and though Coffin suspects it was the fire hearth, the cause of fire has not been confirmed.
