Shed blaze leaves owners gutted
THE shed Ron Southwood built from scratch at Bilambil more than 15 years ago has become a blackened iron shell after being razed with fire on Monday night.
Mr Southwood’s wife Helen said she had noticed the power starting to surge just after 7pm and had gone outside to check the fuse box when she noticed flames licking the 30m x 15m shed.
It was still smouldering at 11am yesterday as Mr and Mrs Southwood stood staring blankly at the wreckage that contained the ash of a lifetime of collectables, the burnt-out shells of two cars, and countless tools and farming equipment.
“It’s hard to believe what fire can do,” Mrs Southwood said. “The whole back end was iron and it’s disintegrated.”
Tweed Heads Fire and Rescue station officer Steve Sharp said it took more than 30 firefighters from Fire and Rescue NSW and the Rural Fire Service (RFS) with six water pumps almost three hours to extinguish the blaze.
No one was injured and the Southwood home was unaffected.
