Wedding rings and the ashes of his late wife were among the "irreplaceable" items a Dunedin man lost when his home was destroyed by a fire in the weekend.
Flames 2m high were seen burning from the roof of a "house bus" parked at a Shiel Hill property on Saturday.
When firefighters arrived, the bus could not be saved.
Gary West, the owner of the bus, had lived in it for about 20 years.
"All my life was in that bus."
Mr West said a neighbour had spotted smoke and raised the alarm.
The house bus was parked on a friend’s land, and when he arrived he saw flames about 2m high burning from the roof, Mr West said.
The first thing he did the next morning was make a coffee, look over the hill and "make sure it actually really happened".
Stereos, two televisions and a range with gas hob and rotisserie oven were all inside the bus, and he had even stocked it up with groceries at lunchtime.
Apart from a bit of fishing gear, it was "basically a total loss".
Mr West said his wife died five years ago, and he kept her ashes in a small wooden box "so she was always in the bus with me".
A communion cross she had had since childhood, wedding rings and a previous Christmas gift from her had all been in the bus when it went up in flames.
"It’s all the irreplaceable stuff," Mr West said.
"I know this happens to other people all the time, but when it happens to you it’s bloody hard to take.
"All those memories that I had with my wife — all gone."
Mr West said he believed things happened for a reason and this was a way of his wife saying goodbye.
"Time to move on, be happy."
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) spokesman said it was called to reports of a bus on fire at a property in the suburb of Shiel Hill about 7.10pm on Saturday.
When crews and tankers arrived, the fire in the "house bus" was well-involved, and nearby gas bottles needed to be cooled, the spokesman said.
Crews left the scene after about two hours and a fire investigator was on site yesterday, the spokesman said.
Fenz special fire investigator Matt Jones said the cause of the fire had been determined to be accidental.
