Luke Shackcloth desperate to find home for mum after fire guts uninsured home

Luke Shackcloth is desperate to find a home for his mum after fire gutted her uninsured home. Here’s how you can help.

Luke Shackcloth and his 86-year-old mother Joan whose Howrah home was destroyed by fire on Monday night need to find a new place to live. Picture: Chris Kidd

Luke Shackcloth is desperate to find a home for his 86-year-old mother whose house – which was not insured – was destroyed by fire.

The youngest of 13 children Mr Shackcloth was in the kitchen with his mother Joan unaware a fire had started to take hold in his bedroom and makeshift office.

They escaped uninjured but Mrs Shackcloth’s Howrah home for the past 27 years was gutted.

“We were cooking dinner when a neighbour knocked on the door with his phone camera phone filming and said ‘your house is on fire’,” Mr Shackcloth said.

“We had the kitchen door shut to keep the heat in and hadn’t noticed.

“I ran down the hallway and that was just black and immediately I knew it was going to be too big to do anything.

Luke Shackcloth and his 86-year-old mother Joan whose Howrah home was destroyed by fire on Monday night need to find a new place to live. Picture: Supplied

“So I’ve just grabbed mum and she’s actually gone to get the fire blanket to try to help and I’m like, ‘no mum, let’s go’.

“By the time we got to the bottom of the front door steps, it exploded out the bedroom window.

“It was that hot and powerful.”

Mr Shackcloth returned to Hobart this year to spend time with his brother Ray who had motor neurone disease and had been living with his mother and working as a mortgage broker.

He turned 40 in March and was planning a joint birthday with Ray who was to celebrate 60 but Ray sadly died.

“It’s been a pretty shitty year and then to find out the house wasn’t insured. It was a failure to communicate between us.

“We don’t have money to rebuild a house, so we’re a bit in shock. Things are tough already and we’re far from a rich family.”

Luke Shackcloth and his 86-year-old mother Joan whose Howrah home was destroyed by fire on Monday night need to find a new place to live. Picture: Supplied

Mr Shackcloth said his mother had been a “pillar of support” to people on the eastern shore, especially in the Catholic community.

“Mum and dad raised money and dad helped build the John Paul II Church (at Rokeby) and they got a signed letter from Pope John Paul thanking them which was on the wall.”

Mr Shackcloth said two days after Monday night’s fire, his mother went on her first holiday in 10 years with a Probus club.

“It’s lucky she packed her bags two days before and they were in the hallway.”

He is staying with a cousin and plans to return to his family in Darwin but worries about where his mother will live.

“Mum’s a trooper but it’s going to be $100,000 to knock the place down.

“The only thing mum managed to drag out of the house fire is a bag full of plastic bags.”

The cause of the fire was deemed an electrical fault. A GoFund page has been set up to help the family whose belongings were destroyed.