LAST-MINUTE ESCAPE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 72, 26 March 1928, Page 5

LAST-MINUTE ESCAPE.

apartment house gutted.

WOMEN QUIT UPPER ROOM.

DESCENT ON A SHEET.

SLIGHT INJURIES SUSTAINED.

When fire broke out in an eightroomed apartment house at 9, St. James Street early this morning two women who occupied a front bedroom on the second storey escaped in their night attire by lowering themselves down on a sheet and falling several feet into a narrow alley. Miss Ethel Beatty, who was the last to descend, ricked her left ankle, the sheet breaking and precipitating her on to the ground with 6ome force. Her companion, Mrs. Mona Kelsall, was slightly burned, her left ear being blistered and her hair being singed on one side.

Some neighbours asserted this morning that the house was ablaze from end to end when the City Fire Brigade arrived, the flames having spread with great rapidity. The night sister on duty at St. Helens Hosnital, which is imme*diately behind the house, heard screams and cries of "Let me out! Save us!" * m - Straightway she dashed up Pitt Street to the fire station seventvlive yards distant, and in under a minute the brigade was at the fire.

w Ti 16 . house ' wlllch owned bv Mrs. Hun °f Devonport, was occupied by Mrs. * and eight people were asleep in the old wooden building when the fire started. Mrs. North was roused y an unusual noise and discovered flames leaping from a linen press under the staircase. She rushed into rooms on the ground floor, awakening their sleeping occupants, and her son, Reg., made his exit by a window to give the alarm. Somewhat confused, he did not take the shortest route to the station, and arrived there just as the fire engines were leaving. Attempts at Rescue Fail. _ Having roused the household, Mrs. North became anxious concerning Miss Beatty and Mrs. Kelsall on the upper floor, the stairway being black with smoke. Two attempts to reach the trapped women were made by Miss Annie Smyth, but the dense smoke choked her and she had to make for the open air.

A twelve-year-old cripple, son of Mrs. Lloyd, had to be assisted to escape from the blazing house. According to statements made to Superintendent Wilson this morning the front door was left open in the excitement of the moment, and in a twinkling the fire spread from end to end of the ground floor and began to attack the upper portions.

Mrs. North vainly tried to save £17 in notes, which she had secreted in the linen press, the money being due as rent. A Pomeranian dog and a cat were snatched up by some of the occupants as they ran out, but little or no personal property was saved.

Awakened by the cries of those below, Miss Beatty and Mrs. Kelsall were unable to get down the blazing stairs. They had a momentary struggle with the side window, which was not fitted with weights, and then lowered a sheet down the wall. "If they had kept their wits about them they could have gone the whole distance oil sheets, as I gave them two clean ones only yesterday," Mrs. North told a reporter. However, tongues of fire were already licking about the two women as they made their way j down. * I

An officer of the at. John Ambulance Association rendered first aid, and the women were taken to the Auckland Hospital in the ambulance. They were suffering from shock, in addition to other minor injuries, but were not admitted to t-lie institution. "It was nearly two o'clock, we were in our night dresses, our home had been burned down and we felt pretty bad, but the night sister said there were no beds for us," said one of the unfortunate women this morning. "So the ambulance man brought us back to St. James Street and Mrs. Townsend kindly took us in and put us to bed." Both women spoke highly of the St. John Association officials and also of the nurses from St. Helens Hospital, who did everything possible for them.

When the brigade arrived, someone shouted that there was a man asleep in one of the upper rooms. A ladder was erected, and firemen investigated, to prove the alarm false. Two leads of hose were run out, and in less than three minutes the fire was under control. No damage was done to the wooden residences on each side of the house, but the occupants removed their belongings, Eight nurses who occupy Lister House, on the right-hand side, awoke to find their rooms lit up with the glare, and hastily packed their dressing cases. Before the fire was subdued, firemen had to climb on to the iron roof, and partially strip it in order to reach the shingles over which it was laid.

Mrs. North had a policy for £200 on the contents, with the Hartford Insurance Company. Other insurances on the gutted house are not available.

Beds for Serious Cases.

"Had the two women being seriously injured, they would have been admitted," stated an official of the Auckland Hospital, when inquiries were made concerning the truth of the statement that the victims of the St. James Street fire were turned away.'' Beds were available for serious cases. The sister on duty must have had good reason for taking the course she did."