FIRE IN NELSON-STREET.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 146, 20 June 1906, Page 5

FIRE IN NELSON-STREET.

A BOARDLNGHOUSE GUTTED. BOARDER SERIOUSLY INJURED. A boardinghouse in Nolson-street, owned and occupied by Mrs. OK- efe, was at an early hour this morning gutted by fire, the occupants having barely time to escape with their lives. One of them, inde'd, an elderly man named Joseph Stevens, was so blinded and confused by smoke that he jumped from t'u> upper storey to the ground, sustaining injuries in the fall that necessitated his removal to the Hospital. The fire appears to have originated in the kitchen at the basement, and. once stablished. the dames leapt through the woodun partitions with such celeriy that i one of the sleeping inmates awoke until the flames were almost among them. Mrs. O'Ke fe awoke to s.e the flames flickering

up her bedroom wpll, and clasping her little boy, who was sleeping in tne same room, screamed out the alarm and rash-d into the passage, hr hair anu eyebrows being singed as she 11 d along. A boarder awoke almost at the same moment, but it was impossible, owing to the smoke r.nd flames, by this time to reach the remaining inmate of the house ( Stevens), who occupied a room in the top storey, so stones were thrown at his window in the endeavour to attract his attention, while a ladder was hastily soueht to reach Ms window from the outside. Stevens, aroused by the crackling of the fire and the breaking glass of bis window, dashed through it on to the verandah, and, apparently not seing either the ladder or the life-sheet which the fire brigade had now spread to receive him, sprang to th-j ground, breaking his arm and several ribs, besides suffering severe contusion? and injuries to the chest. Once the brigade wen , on the scene the flames wvre quickly Drought under control, but the rapidity which they had spread left little of the interior undamaged. Mrs. O'Keie's loss will be considerably above the £400 insurance on the house and furniture in the Manchester Office.