Family 'gutted' as Fire Service tears down house

DON SCOTT/The Press

DEMOLITION: The house on the corner of Hampshire Street and Wainoni Road adjoining the one where the bodies of Tisha Lowry and Rebecca Chamberlain were found buried, has been torn down.

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The Fire Service will bill a Gisborne family for pulling down their Christchurch investment property, which became an arson target because it adjoined the house of a double murderer.

The house owned by Jason and Christina Drain was demolished by a Fire Service contractor last month after a fourth arson attempt on the property, on the corner of Wainoni Rd and Hampshire St.

The house it adjoined – owned by Jason Somerville, who is serving a life sentence for murdering his wife and a neighbour and burying them under the floorboards – was also demolished.

The Drains and Somerville already face a Christchurch City Council order, which expired last week, to clear the rubble from the site.

Fire Service Christchurch area commander Dan Coward said the demolition bill would be sought from the property owners under the Fire Service Act.

The bill, which he said was "not substantial", is understood to be more than $1000.

The Fire Service's legal department is working out how to recover the costs, given that Somerville is in prison serving at least 23 years for killing his wife, Rebecca Chamberlain, 33, and Tisha Lowry, 28.

Christina Drain said yesterday she was "gutted" at the news.

"I thought the fire brigade was there to put fires out, not decide to pull somebody's house down because they thought they might get called out again. That's what it comes across as," she said.

The Drains, who have children aged 11 and nine, still owe more than $130,000 on the semi-detached investment property.

They were insured for the first two arson attempts, but then no other company would cover them, Drain said. "We don't have money for any of this."

The council's 28-day fire-hazard notice to clear the rubble from the site expired last Friday, inspections and enforcement manager Gary Lennan said.

"Should the notices not be complied with, council will then need to seek quotes from contractors on the cost of removing the debris, before entering upon the land and undertaking the work necessary," he said.

Drain said the council had not contacted her or her husband. "At the moment we've got no idea what's going on," she said. "It's driving us insane, basically, that it's not getting anywhere."

There was one piece of bright news for the Drains yesterday. Their MP, Education Minister Anne Tolley, has written to them offering help.