‘Like a granddad to everybody’: Man found dead after West Coast gang house burns down – صحيفة الصوت

A “grandad to everybody” has been found dead at the scene of a house fire on the West Coast.

Friends have paid tribute to West Coast man Bob Corson, who died in the blaze.

The property on Peel St in Cobden, Greymouth is linked to the Aotearoa Natives gang, whose previous gang pad was destroyed by fire in December 2020.

Emergency services were called to the fire at 5.35am on Friday. Five fire crews attended to tackle the blaze.

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“Inquiries are under way to establish the circumstances of the fire, including how the fire started,” police said in a statement.

Greymouth woman Jo Hall, who was one of 29 families of the men killed in the Pike River disaster, said Corson was instrumental in setting up the Tribute 29 Pike River Memorial Run and supporting the families.

”Bob was a very good man. He will be sorely missed,” she said.

Corson, who was a Navy veteran, previously lived in Blackball where he cared for his wife before she died of an illness in 2019.

“Bob lost his mobility a bit and got around on a scooter. He would always sit outside the cafe in Greymouth and so many people would stop and chat to him, he was so friendly,” she said.

She said he was living with the Aotearoa Natives, who had been good to him and offered him a place to live.

Corson was sleeping in a neighbouring house when the clubhouse burnt down in 2020.

He was one of two men spoken to by Stuff at the scene of the fire who described waking up to the house filled with smoke. They escaped and saw their clubhouse next door completely in flames.

Police said they would work with fire investigators to do a scene examination on Friday.

“At this stage we don’t know how the fire started or whether it is suspicious.”

A small group of people were gathered at the cordon early on Friday.

“He was like a granddad to everybody,” one person said.

They were not sure if the fire was gang related or an accident.

“He was one of the best people ever and the best family members anyone could ask for.”

Emergency services were called to a fire at a vacant section in Peel St in March and were abused by people at the gang house.

On Wednesday, Chrystal Carter was sentenced to two weeks’ community detention by the Greymouth District Court for verbally abusing firefighters during the March incident.

Judge Paul Kellar said a freelance photographer who was taking photographs of that fire was grabbed by the neck and thrown to the ground.

“You continued yelling and screaming at the fire personnel and threw items at one of the volunteering personnel and this served to spur on the associates and gang members who became more offensive and agitated,” the judge told Carter.

Cobden fire chief Kirk Gillam said the Peel St house was completely engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived on Friday morning.

“It was well involved. Investigators are on scene to determine the cause,” he said.

The man who died was the only person in the house at the time the fire broke out, he said.