Tablets may have saved the life of a family of seven after fire tore through their shed, their business and a neighbouring cafe and gallery.
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Hayley and James Collicoat and their children aged between 18 months and nine were asleep at their home in Avoca when fire broke out just after 1am.
The fire was first noticed by the mother of five when she got out of bed to take some tablets she had forgotten to take earlier in the night.
It was already looming as a sleepless night for the family, with James, who had recently undergone a knee reconstruction, needing assistance because of a possible case of Deep Vein Thrombosis.
“I’d organised the patient transport and they said it would take a couple of hours, so we decided we would get some sleep,” Mrs Collicoat said.
“I said to James ‘well let’s try and get a little bit of sleep’ and then I realised I hadn’t taken my tablets, and I was like ‘do I, do I not?’ but I thought ‘no, I’ll get up and do it’. I rolled out of bed and went to the kitchen.
“I looked out the window very bleary-eyed and there was this huge flame between the two olive trees. There was one great big, huge, long flame, dead in the middle of the two trees.
“I still just can’t believe it. I’m relieved that my medication has saved my life twice now, I’m relieved out of pure discipline I got up to take it, It was just luck, I hadn’t put the kitchen blind down and luck that I happened to look out the kitchen window to take my tablet, otherwise I would have been in bed asleep.”
Mrs Collicoat managed to wake her children and get them to safety while her husband attempted to rescue anything he could.
“I actually have no idea how it started,” she said.
“It went from a flame to a fully engulfed shed fire.
There was nothing you could do – we just had to stand there and watch our entire life burn to the ground.
“I’m racking my brain and even the fire guys are looking trying to work out what happened.
“We had safety switches everywhere. I’m a real stickler for safety because when we first moved in, none of the property had safety switches installed.
“We’d always try and keep things neat and tidy because we live here and we have five little humans, especially one that likes to put things in his mouth, everything has to be clean all the time.”
The Collicoats are the owners of Pyrenees Premium Cuts which has in just over two years has grown to become one of the most popular butchers in the western district, winning numerous awards for their products.
The business, which is also Avoca’s only butcher, was destroyed in the blaze.
It had recently expanded to Maryborough, but most of the small goods operations were completed in Avoca.
Business manager Jesse Leenaerts was one of the first on scene. He said flames were up to 15 metres high.
“We don’t know what started it,” he said. “The boss called me just after 1am and I only live around the corner so I jumped in the car and got around.
“We jumped on the garden hose, not that a garden hose will do much good of course. But we just needed to make sure all the kids were out.
“Thank god we’ve still got that store in Maryborough, so at least there will still be some income coming in. Other than Christmas, this is our busiest week of the year.”
Mrs Collicoat said while it was very early, she hoped they could rebuild.
“We now can’t do small goods until we can get a new smoke oven,” she said. “This was our operations centre, everything that is in Maryborough originates from here.
“We’ve got more Melbourne customers than we do local – people from Ballarat, Horsham all come here.”
“We will have to rebuild, we didn’t come out here to only go half-way.”
What caused the fire?
An electrical fault may be to blame for a fire that destroyed a shed and two businesses in Avoca early on Tuesday morning.
Witnesses described seeing flames as high as 15 metres coming from the shed as the fire engulfed the High Street properties.
Jos Cafe and Gallery was also extensively damaged inside, although the structure of the building remained in place.
Avoca Fire captain Aaron Mchoul said 10 trucks containing 50 firefighters from as far away as Ballarat were called to the blaze in High Street just after 1am and took nearly two hours to bring it under control.
“The shed was well alight within a couple of minute, it wasn’t long before it started to spread.
“Its possibly started from something in the shed. At this stage, we’re probably thinking it is an electrical fault, but investigations are still continuing.”
Captain Mchoul said the family were incredibly lucky as the fire could have easily spread to many other adjoining properties.
“The potential there of asset loss was phenomenal and so to was the loss of life. Houses and shops we can replace, people we can’t,” he said.
“The town will get behind this family, they are a great butcher shop and a lot of people travel to come here to visit.
“We’re thankful no-one got hurt.”
Power was cut to residents and businesses throughout Avoca as crews battled to contain the blaze.
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