Fire razes man's home of 18 years

BRITTANY PICKETT/ Fairfax NZ

ALL THAT'S STANDING: The remains of a West Plains Rd, Invercargill, property after a fire on Thursday night.

A chimney is all that remains of a rural Invercargill home.

Keith Greig had been away from his West Plains Rd home for only about an hour on Thursday but returned to find it engulfed in flames.

"I screeched down my driveway . . . there was a guy there who must have called the fire station,"he said.

Greig, a security guard, lived alone in the old wooden house, his home of 18 years. It was "only worth two dollars", but worth a million to him, he said. "My grandkids loved it out there, I loved it out there."

Greig said he had no idea what caused the fire. "It was gone, yeah, I'm baffled."

He lost 18 years of belongings in the fire.

"I'm staying with my son in town here and then I don't know what I'll do," he said.

Fire Service Invercargill senior station officer Gordon Rodgers said the cause of the fire was unknown but not suspicious. Firefighters were called to the fire at 7.48pm and left the scene at 1am, he said.

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Fire razes man's home of 18 years