ROASTED TO DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1898, Page 3 (Supplement)

ROASTED TO DEATH.

SEAMEN'S-. TERRIBLE FATE At an early hour on August 8 a fire, took place in a seamen's lodging house m St. Paul's Square, Liverpool, and resulted in the loss of four lives. The outbreak was of a sudden and most furious character. It commenced on the second floor shortly after one o'clock, and within a few minutes the whole house was filled with dense smoke,white the staircase was in flames. The house at the time was full of boarders, most of whom were Spaniards, Italians, and Germans. When the Are brigade arrived the first thing they noticed was a knot of individuals on the roof clinging to the chimney and other supports, ana crying out for help. The fire escape was promptly on the spot, and these men were at once taken from their perilous position. On the fire being got under sufficiently to permit an entrance being made to the house a search party came across the prostrate forms of two men lying on the second floor. The two men were unconscious, and they were at once placed on an ambulance waggon and conveyed to the Northern Hospital. On the search party making their way to the third floor a ghastly spectacle was revealed to them. Three men were foun<_ lying dead on the floor, and from the appearance of the bodies they had been literally roasted to death. All the other boarders succeeded in making their escape at an early stage of the fire. One of -the men taken to the hospital succumbed to his injuries some hours afterwards, making four deaths in all. Most of the victims as well as the others who escaped, had been paid off a few days previously from the steamer Hibernla, which had arrived from Buenos Ayres.