HURRIED EXITS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 111, 20 February 1935, Page 6

HURRIED EXITS

SPECTACULAR FIRE. BOARDINGHOUSE DESTROYED. MEN HAVE NARROW ESCAPES. RUSH DOWN BLAZING STAIRWAY TWENTY-SEVEN' PEOPLE HOMELESS. t The 59-year-old, wooden, twostoreyed, Prince Albert boarding house in Wills Street east was totally destroyed l by fire, between , 6.30 o'clock and 7 o'clock this morning in the mos 4 spectacular blaze seen in Ashburton since the Baptist Tabernacle was destroyed about 10 years ago. Twenty-seven people who were in the building made a hasty exit, taking with them practically only the clothes they stood up in. ' There were several narrow escapes from in- I jury as the ocupants fled through the smoke and flame filled structure on their way to the street.

There was a terrific heat in the vicinity during the time the fire was at its height and the Fire Brigade had to turn most of its attention upon the Mission building to the west of the 'boarding house and the butcher's shop on the east. The -Mission was severely scorched and blistered and the shop took fire in several places.

The boarding house was owned by Mrs Elizabeth Coulter, a former occupier, now residing in Belfast, Ireland. It was occupied- by Mr and Mrs C. H. S. Samuels. The fire in the kitchen, which was in a semi-detached structure at the back of the boarding house, was started by Mr Samuels about 6 o'clock in the ordinary way. Half an hour later, Mis Samuels entered the kitchen to prepare the breakfast and discovered the place to be on fire.

She at once aroused her family and the alarm was given to the boarders, who were occupying the upper storey. At the same time an alarm was sent to the Fire Brigade, which left the fire station in very smart time and had only three blocks to go to reach the fire.

In the meantime, the flames, fanned by a fairly steady north-west wind, swept with great rapidity through the lower portion of the house, and thick smoke began to roll upwards from the back of the building, while the rooms upstairs became murky with smoke in a matter almost of seconds. Valuables Left Behind. In the slight confusion which resulted following the waking of those men who were asleep, several of the boarders rushed for the stairs without thought for the money they had in their rooms and the loss in this regard is said to bo .a fair amount. One man, Mr D. Bell, who had been working in the Methven district for some time and who came to Ashburton last evening following an injury to his leg. had placed £35 in notes under the pillow slip on his bed, and he did not remember it till he was on the street, when it was too late to go back into the building. Another man who had placed his watch and £3 in cash in his mattress, likewise forgot his cache in his hurry to get out, but he was more fortunate than others, for, after the fire had died down, the mattress, charred and water soaked, was located and his valuables were recovered. An old man, who had been seriously ill for some time, but who has been recovering recently, was got out with difficulty. He happened to be. an early-riser and he was on his way to the bath-room when the alarm was given. Before he could be taken outside, . the flames were roaring under the stairs.

Man's 'Face Scorched. Other men who had waited to catch up a few clothes before they fled from their rooms had to face a good amount of flames and dense smoke as they made their way down the stairs, and pictures on the walls were falling off as they ran for safety. One man. about the last to use the stairs before they fell in, had his eye-brows and eye-lashes singed. Cut off by a wall of flames and smoke, a boarder had to make his escape by means of a rope hanging from his window. He threw his mattress to the ground to act as a cushion in case he should fall and then started down the rope. Flames were licking at the rope by this time and it burnt through and dropped the man before he had completed his slide to the ground. Another occupant of the house was directly below him when he fell but neither was hurt. Building Becomes Furnace. About the time the Fire Brigade reached the house, the flames took complete charge of the structure and were bursting through the wall at numerous points. The inside was, then a furnace, and it was apparent at once that no amount of water from the hoses would effect a save. The old, dry timbers burned like tinder and in a few minutes from the discovery of the outbreak the roof fell in, this being accompanied by a huge pall of smoke which billowed to the heavens to let through great bursts of flame that were higher than the flagstaff of the Majestic Theatre nearby A large number of people had assembled in front of the boarding house by this time, but the heat thrown out by the fire pressed them back a considerable distance.

It was then that the danger to the adjoining buildings became more obvious. The flames Avere tending to the

south-east and the iron on the roof of [ the butcher's shop next dioor, also occupied by Mr Samuels, soon became red hot, the ceiling taking fire and necessitating the removal of some of the roof iron to permit a lead of hose being trained on the flames. The windows of the side next to the boarding house did not last long and fire broke out in several places. Most of the inside walls were scorched and blackened by the heat of the main fire. The inside of the shop was damaged a good deal by water but the machinery did not appear to have suffered. The Mission Saved, Only by concentrating leads of water on its walls was the Fire Brigade able .to save the Mission. Most of the firefighters' attention was centred on this building after the hopelessness of saving the boarding house had been decided upon, but even then the paint in several large areas of the wall was scorched off the boards and parts of the eaves were smouldering. Had the wind been from the south-east nothing would have saved the Mission and in that event there would have been grave danger to the wooden, twostoreyed residence and shop next to it. The Brigade did very good work in keeping the fire from the Mission, and they worked with vigour for two or three hours tilli the danger was past. So great was the heat at one time that the tyres of cycles parked against the fences and buildings on the opposite side of the street were melted slightly, and bags of wood in a yard opposite the theatre smouldered, it is said.

In view of the narrow escapes of many of the people whq slept in the building it is fortunate that the fire did not break out during the night when darkness might have interfered with the easy egress of the occupants. The building was erected by Mr 0. Truckle in 1876 and had been used as a boarding house ever since, under a number of proprietors. Mr Samuels and his family will be heavy losers as a result of the fire as they were able to salvage very little of their belongings before they had to quit the doomed building, and a number of sports trophies were lost, besides a valuable ,piano and a large wireless set. The insurance on the building was \£4so in the Norwich Union office, and there was a policy for £l5O in the same office, and in the name of Mrs Coulter, on a quantity of the furniture, while there was one of £2OO on the remainder of the furniture, in the Australian Alliance Assurance Company. It is thought that the fire started through a defect in the chimney leading from the kitchen range. The defect had been noticed in north-wester-ly weather on previous occasions, but was thought not to be of a serious nature.