Elderly man loses precious photos of late wife in devastating house fire
A great-grandfather has lost almost everything, including precious photos of his late wife, during a fire at his Gailes home in Queensland.
Neighbours feared Noel McGonagle, 87, was trapped inside but he was out on a bush walk.
He had lived at the home for 50 years.
"We received a number of triple-0 calls of a home on fire, and a report of a man inside," Mark Walker from Queensland Fire and Emergency Service said.
"I was yelling out 'help, help, somebody get help', and the whole neighbourhood rushed," neighbour Tina Webb said.
But the great-grandfather wasn't there, and unaware of what was unfolding at his house.
He'd been walking in the bush - but when he returned home his house was burning from a fire that had started in the kitchen.
Noel's son Grant said the 87-year-old was beginning to experience the effects of dementia and Alzheimer's.
"He doesn't remember a lot of stuff and sometimes he's in a different year," he said.
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Noel's wife passed away nine years ago. The couple had been married for half a century and Noel kept her ashes, and precious photographs of her, inside the house.
His son, who is now caring for him, said the collection of black and white photographs and slides were "irreplaceable."
