faulty lead on electric blanket

Fire takes toll, but 'can't keep a good man down'
By DENISE IRVINE - Waikato Times | Friday, 16 March 2007
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BRUCE MERCER/Waikato Times

MUSIC MAN: Gerry Merito is back on the road with a new guitar.



An original member of the Howard Morrison Quartet has had a few rough months but, as Denise Irvine finds, you can't keep a good man down for long.

Gerry Merito, veteran Kiwi entertainer, has a new guitar, plenty of gigs to play, and an irrepressible grin despite the difficulties of the past few months.

Like the line in the old Randy Newman song, "you can't keep a good man down", Gerry can't help spinning a few wry jokes as he describes the toll that a fire at his Cambridge home last winter has taken on him and wife Dorothy.

It was about 7pm on June 30, and Gerry, 68 – an original member of the famous Howard Morrison Quartet – and Dorothy were settling in to watch the Silver Ferns playing Australia on TV. Gerry says they were about to have a glass of wine when they saw smoke pouring into their upstairs lounge.

Next thing, the smoke alarms were going off, the master bedroom was on fire, and Gerry says he told Dorothy: "We'd better forget about the glass of wine". They fled downstairs, called the fire brigade from a cellphone, and began to move Gerry's heavy music equipment out from the downstairs rooms.

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The house fire –- caused by a faulty lead on an electric blanket –- wrecked the master bedroom and another bedroom, and caused smoke and water damage.