Treasured rings back with fire victim

Dunedin resident Gary West was reunited with rings given to him by his late wife when they were retrieved by a fire investigator after his house bus was destroyed in a fire at the weekend.
Photo: ODT / Stephen Jaquiery

When Dunedin man Gary West’s home was destroyed in a fire, he feared he had lost everything connecting him to his late wife.

The house bus he had owned for 20 years and was living in for the past five weeks was destroyed on Saturday in what was determined by Fire and Emergency New Zealand to be an accidental fire.

West said the fire was “so hot and intensive” he would have never thought anything had survived. But after some “scratching around” at the scene, a fire investigator uncovered three rings given to him by his late wife – including his wedding ring.

The discovery felt “quite amazing”, West said.

“More of a relief that I’d actually found something that my wife had given to me.

“That’s the only thing I’ve got of her to remember her by now. Everything else is gone.”

Some of his late wife’s ashes, a communion cross she had since childhood and a present she had given him one Christmas had all been in the bus when it went up in flames, West said.

The three rings – a wedding ring, engagement ring and “friendship” ring from when the pair first started going out – were all in one piece, but some had lost their stones and been partly burnt away.

While the bus was insured, the contents were not, he said.

His daughter had set up a Givealittle page that, as of yesterday, had received more than $700 in donations.

“There is still some really good people out there.”

Fenz specialist fire investigator Matt Jones, of Dunedin, said he was going through what was left of the ashes and destruction inside the bus when the rings “just appeared”.

He cleaned them up a bit before telling West to hold out his hand.

He was emotional and “very humbled” by the return of the rings, Jones said.

“He was pretty rapt, to be honest.”

Jones said he had been hopeful because it would have taken a lot of heat to distort the rings, and attempted to find them to give West some closure.

It was the first time in his role as a fire investigator he had recovered possessions thought to be lost.

“It is a special moment when you can reunite someone with something that meant so much to them.”

– This story was first published by the Otago Daily Times.