A TRAGIC FIRE,

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

A TRAGIC FIRE,

FRENZIED WOMAN'S ACTIONS RESULT IN DEATH OF "WOULD-BE

RESCUER

Two women were killed and another woman and a man were severely injured on December 20 owing' to a fire at the residence of a Mr C. H. Raymond, in

New York.

Mrs Underwood, a sister of Mrs Raymond, leaped from a second lloor window. Her head struck the sidewalk and death was instantaneous. A man named William Doerr, in trying to rescue Mrs Underwood, sustained a fracture of the skull, which probably will result in

death.

Mrs C. H. Raymond followed Mrs Underwood out of the window, and was picked up insensible, while Mr Raymond was carried from the house unconscious from smoke. After the flames were extinguished, 'the body of the servant, Harriet Fee, was found on the third floor of the house. She had been overcome by the

smoke.

The fire was discovered by Someone passing in tho street. "When the firemen arrived they could not get into the building, as the flames burst out in such volume that the men were driven back. Mr and Mrs Raymond appeared at windows of the third-storey front and Mrs Underwood lit a second-storey window.

Tho firemen ran ladders to the upper storeys, and William Doerr, a railroad conductor, volunteered to go up. Mrs Raymond and Mrs Underwood could be seen climbing out of the windows, and the firemen and the crowd begged them to go back. Doerr was half-way up the ladder, when Mrs Underwood jumped from the window, striking Doerr full in the breast and carrying him with her to the street. Then the firemen bore away Mrs Underwood, while Others rescued Doerr. Mrs Underwood was dead and Doerr apparently dying, their skulls having been crushed.

Meantime Mrs Raymond, who could not be restrained by her husband, jumped out of tho window, and was fatally hurt. Two firemen, who climbed a ladder to the third Storey, rescued Mr Raymond just as he was overcome by the

smoke.

Ferguson, the butler," escaped by the rear. His face was badly lacerated owing to his falling while making his es-

cape.

Tt was after the fire had been subdued that the body of Harriet Fee was found. All the clothing had been burned off and the corpse was black from the flames.