BOILING TAR FIRES A HOUSE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 251, 19 October 1912, Page 17

BOILING TAR FIRES A HOUSE.

NARROW ESCAPES—EXCITING RESCUE. There was an exciting scene In the Borough Road, London, between two and three o'clock on Saturday afternoon, August 28. No. 00 was occupied by a Mr and Mrs Freeman, their son, and three lodgers. The son, Thomas Freeman (22), was boiling tar in the basement to repair a shed in the back yard, when some of the liquid bubbled over, and, catching alight, burst into a flame. "Young Freeman, catching hold of the pail of tar, attempted to carry it upstaire and throw it out of danger. The flames, however, were too much for him. Finding that he was being sfriously burned he dropped the pall and fell back exhausted on the wooden staircase he was ascending. His father ran to assist him, and in turn attempted to carry the burning tar outside the bouse, but he also had to let the pail drop after his hair and eyebrows had been badly singed. The burning tar then spread over the stairs and floor to a gas stove, when there was an explosion, and the whole of the lower portion of the house became involved in flumes. The father, son, and daughter managed to effect,a hurried exit from the house after calling to the other inmates to do likewise. They believed they were following immediately behind them, but Mrs Freeman, a woman named Lucy Homer, a Mrs Brown, and another male lodger were cut off by the flames and found their escape by the front door impossible.

Then commenced the most exciting series of incidents connected with the flre. The four imprisoned persons rushed into a room in the area, n small window of which overlooks the street on a level with the pavement. The window is protected by iron bars, which were so securely fixed that to break or remove them by band was a matter of practical impossibility. The man and the three women shrieked loudly for help as the flames crept closer to them and began to scorch tbeir hair and clothing. Fortunately, a housekeeper named William Thomas Howard, living three doors away, beard the cries for help, and, hurrying into the street, saw smoke issuing from the area window and the four people battering at the panes and calling for succour. He ran back into the yard, obtaining a crowbar, and with this battered down the bars in front of the area. He then helped to drag the affrighted and thoroughly exhausted people from the small room in which they had been imprisoned.