Big Issue vendor, Steve Corbett, 48, who sells the magazine outside of Wilko in Truro, Cornwall, spoke to The Big Issue about losing all his possessions recently in a wildfire that broke out in Boscawen Park in Truro.
Steve Corbett, who has sold the Big Issue magazine for the last 5 years, spoke about when he first found out what had happened: “I was on my pitch in Truro at the start of August when I lost my tent and all my things due to a wildfire at Boscawen Park in Truro. I’d noticed that the field I was staying in had very dry grass and it had started to turn brown as far back as June. I didn’t think anything of it because everything is sort of stamped down where I am.”
He continued: “But I was on my pitch on August 6 and someone came running over to me and said all the fields were alight where my tent was. So I got Blueberry, my dog, and went the mile or so down to where the tent was and the fire brigade and police had cordoned it off. They wouldn’t let us through because of health and safety. It was quite windy that day so the fire had spread very rapidly so it caught the top field and then the tent as well.”
When Steve went to see what had happened, he realised the damage was extensive: “I lost everything. Sleeping bags, the dog’s bed, a radio I used for listening to the Liverpool matches and the football, battery packs for charging my phone, all my clothes apart from what I was wearing that day, my gas stove and a couple of cylinders, my head torch. I also had another tent I was about to move into and that caught fire as well.”
However, the community rallied around him and have helped him get back on his feet: “But people have been brilliant. One of the policemen at the incident phoned his wife up and asked her to take out their personal sleeping bags and his tent and that very same evening he drove into Truro and dropped them off for me which I thought was really nice. Someone also started a crowdfunder for me and it raised about £350. I can’t be more thankful to people really.”
Steve opened up about what went through his mind when he first realised the extent of the damage: “The first thing I thought was: “Damn, where are we going to stay?” because it’s your home, isn’t it? It’s sort of like when someone has a house fire and more than likely they are going to lose things like photographs and personal things that can’t be replaced or they’re attached to. Homeless people don’t tend to have that sort of thing.”