NSW bushfires: Uninsured owner of heritage home left with nothing
Two months ago Paul Miscamble was told his home insurance had gone up 300 per cent because his home was in a fire prone area. Today, the uninsured owner has been left with nothing, his family heirlooms reduced to ashes.
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Two months ago Paul Miscamble was told that his home insurance had gone up by 300 per cent because his home at Bobin — on the Mid North Coast — was in a fire prone area.
Today he and his son Kyle will continue to sift through the ashes of their home in the hope of finding any family heirlooms that may have survived a devastating inferno.
“I was going to renew my insurance and they told me ‘look, you’re in a danger zone with all the fires going on around so your price has gone up from $1800 to $4900 a year’,” Mr Miscamble said.
Mr Miscamble was still working to find the money to renew his insurance when he saw the ridge above his property burning on Friday.
By Saturday morning the fire front had raced down the mountainside and was coming up to the next hill to his home.
“The wind just changed, caught it and all of a sudden I was facing 12- to 14ft walls of flame coming at me,” he said.
Mr Miscamble told his son Kyle to grab what he could and run.
When they were allowed back into their property yesterday, the two found their home burnt to the ground.
“This place was 130 years old, one of the most historic homes in the area, an antique in itself,” Mr Miscamble said. Kyle — one of the first Australians born on January 1, 2001 — spent the day helping his father rummage through their home and tin shed.
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He walked through the concrete pylons and twisted tin that was once their sanctuary and pointed to a cheap concrete statue of an angel.
“Ah well, at least that made it,” he said.
In one corner of the shed was a burnt-out gunsafe — with a metal barrel all that was left of a rifle that was once kept in pristine condition, after being used by a relative in World War 1.
Mr Miscamble said another antique British shotgun in the shed had been valued at between $6000 and $11000.
His superstitious ancestors had wanted to keep all the family antiques — including a family Bible and a French painting from the 1700s — with the men of their family.
They expect that all the most valuable and sentimental items belonging to their linage have now been destroyed in the fire.
“We’re alive, that’s all that I care about,” Mr Miscamble said.
Based on the latest forecast, we have mapped where fires on the north coast are likely to spread during tomorrow's dangerous weather. The red shows the predicted spread of fire. Check https://t.co/NXTTCbYtYQ for detailed information, advice and maps. #nswrfs #nswfires pic.twitter.com/gVstnWDrxC
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) November 11, 2019
“We were looking at everyone else being devastated on Friday but we got absolutely nailed on Saturday.”
Mr Miscamble did find a few items in the rubble yesterday, if only some shattered cups and saucers.
“These were hand-painted, gold inlay,” he said.
“I didn’t know what to do with them so I just had them on some antique tables.”
The jagged pieces of ceramic had fused together with parts of the gold bubbling out.
“It was one hell of a firestorm,” he said.
“We didn’t see one chopper, we only had one fire crew, we were virtually on our own.
“How bloody hot was this thing?”
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Among the devastation, a scorched tree sat among the hectares and hectares of scorched earth on their property.
A metre off the ground and curled around a branch, was a python which had somehow survived.
An online fundraiser has been launched for the devastated rural community as they struggle to recover fragments from the ashes. DETAILS HERE