A married woman with a secret boyfriend living behind her home neglected to tell emergency workers he was inside when a tragic fire engulfed his unit because she feared her mother finding out about her affair.
Stephen John Rayner died in a 2016 blaze, possibly started by a gas cooker or the candles he used to light the unit at the back of his girlfriend, Tanya Brazukas's mother's Christchurch property.
Ms Brazukas did not want her elderly mother-in-law Gail to find out about Mr Rayner because she was married to the woman's son - who was in prison while she had the affair.
Married Tanya Brazukas neglected to tell emergency workers her secret lover was inside when a tragic fire engulfed his unit because she feared her mother finding out about her affair
Stephen John Rayner died in a 2016 blaze, possibly started by a gas cooker or the candles he used to light the unit at the back of his girlfriend, Tanya Brazukas's mother's Christchurch property
His death was referred to the New Zealand coroner, whose findings were reported by by Stuff on Saturday.
'I regret all of my actions of that time. I've been struggling with it ever since then,' said Ms Brazukas, who became homeless after the fire and suffered mental health issues.
Five years earlier, at 6.10am on July 27, 2016, two passersby alerted emergency services the back of the converted ice cream cone factory on Rutherford Street, Woolston was on fire.
The building had been turned into a two-storey home at the front, with a workshop in the centre and a self-contained flat at the back.
Only the flat, which had no smoke alarms fitted, burned down.
Ms Brazukas assured friends no-one was hurt after fire engulfed the flat at the back of her mother's building in 2016. She later confessed she knew her secret lover was inside
Stephen Rayner died aged 66 in a tragic house fire inside a home attached her his lover, Tanya Brazukas
At 6.10am on July 27, 2016, two passersby alerted emergency services the back of the converted ice cream cone factory on Rutherford Street, Christchurch. They broke into the home at the front but the occupants told them nobody else was inside
The two passersby broke into the home at the front of the building and woke up the two women inside. They were told nobody else was in the building.
Ms Brazukas did not inform attending emergency services that anyone was in the burning building, even though she was with him the night before
