HOTEL FIRE TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 257, 30 October 1929, Page 5

HOTEL FIRE TRAGEDY.

VICTIM HEARD CALLING. SEPARATED FROM HUSBAND. DESPERATE RESCUE ATTEMPTS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUNEDIX, this day. The inque-st into the deaths of Mrs. W. Trembath, aged 38, and Moira Trembatli, aged five, who were burned to death in the Carriers' Arms Hotel at Riverton, when it was destroyed by fire early last Monday morning, was opened to-day. Daisy Bradshaw, a cook, said she was awakened by a boarder calling "Fire!" Flame and smoke were coming from the kitchen. She and a housemaid made their way to the front part, where the fire escape was situated. The smoke was very dense. She heard Mrs. Trembath call out twice, and saw Trembath come out of the smoke, from the direction of his wife's room, with a child in his arms. She thought Mrs. Trembath must have been separated from her husband by the flames. All escaped in their night attire, said the witness, except Moses Reed, a boarder, who gave the alarm. Trembath, said the witness, made a desperate effort to reach his wife's room from a window outside, and he was severely burned in the attempt. William Mason, who occasionally acted as 'barman, said he retired after midnight, when everything appeared safe. Awakened by the call of fire, lie swung out of his window on to the pole supporting the fire escape and slid down. He had no idea how or where the fire originated.

The inquest was adjourned to permit Mr. Trembath, who is still suffering from the effects of shock, to give evidence.