Sharon Hargreaves loses her home to fire

Family’s life turned to ashes
BY NICK HIGGINS


Sharon Hargreaves and Rastus at the remains of their Docker home. Picture: Simon Dallinger

MOTHER-of-two Sharon Hargreaves is relieved no one was inside when fire took hold of her Docker home.

Ms Hargreaves arrived home about 9.30pm on Saturday to find the house in which she and her daughters, Carli, 21, and Elise, 17, had lived for the past 12 years well alight.

The family’s dog, Rastus, was also outside at the time of the blaze and survived.

Gone were family treasures, mementoes gathered from when the girls were born and many other items of sentimental value.

Despite losing their possessions, Ms Hargreaves was philosophical about the fire yesterday.

“It does bring home what matters most; we are a very strong team, me and my girls,” she said.

On Sunday they returned to see whether anything could be salvaged, but there was nothing left of the weatherboard house except for brick chimneys.

“It was heartbreaking watching the girls scratching through the rubble,” Ms Hargreaves said.

Ms Hargreaves is staying with her parents at Wangaratta, although she still instinctively wants to drive back home to Docker.

“It’s so surreal,” she said.

Rastus often stays in the house when the family goes away for a short time and Ms Hargreaves was worried he might have been in the house when it caught ablaze.

“When I found him I was elated,” she said.

The family is intact but have nothing in the way of material possessions.

“We have just the clothes on our backs,” Ms Hargreaves said.

The fire is believed to have been caused by an electrical fault.

About 40 firefighters with trucks from six brigades — Moyhu, Carboor, Milawa, Greta, Oxley and Wangaratta — worked for more than three hours to contain and extinguish the blaze.