New owner gets just two hours in house bus

JOHN EDENS/ The Southland Times

DAMPING DOWN: Fire crews deal with hot spots in the burnt-out husk of the 1963 Leyland.

A Dunedin man bought a $16,500 house bus in Wanaka yesterday afternoon and two hours later was left staring at a burnt-out shell.

Don Saxton, 51, was driving his 1963 Leyland Leopard to Dunedin on the Chatto Creek-Springvale Rd when he noticed smoke coming from the rear interior of the fully converted house bus about 4pm.

He stopped 12km from Alexandra near Chatto Creek and flagged down a passer-by to ask for water.

But within minutes the bus was engulfed in smoke and flames, the brake linings burned out and it rolled backwards at an angle across the road to a verge.

Mr Saxton, a cargo handler at Port Otago, said he had sent the seller a text saying "Bus on fire. Written off. Call you later" and he was in need of a beer.

He bought the vehicle at 2pm in Wanaka "as is" but had not insured it.

His job had been under threat until compulsory redundancies at the port were narrowly avoided last week, he said. He was planning to live in the bus while he developed a coastal section.

He and friend Alby Patton had spent a weekend in Queenstown before Mr Saxton was dropped off in Wanaka.

Mr Patton said he did "a rather large U-ee" near Roxburgh to head back to Alexandra as soon as his friend called with the bad news.

"It's only metal, at least he's all right," he said.

Fire crews from Alexandra and Omakau arrived within 15 minutes of a 111 call before being joined by members of the DOC Otago Rural Fire team and police.

Crews spent an hour dousing the flames.

Chief fire officer Derek Shaw said the Rural Fire Team was called as a precaution because the bus was close to a grass verge.

Power line company Delta was also called as a precaution because the bus was on fire near overhead power lines, he said.

"The fire was burning up through or near the lines," he said.

The cause of the fire was unknown but it appeared to have started in the rear of the bus, he said.

Police closed the highway for over an hour while crews battled the blaze, which was fanned by strong winds.