CHILD BURNT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 141, 16 June 1932, Page 7

CHILD BURNT.

TRAPPED IN BEDROOM.

MOTHER SAVING OTHERS.

NEIGHBOUR RESCUES BOY.

FATHER AWAY ON RELIEF WORK.

(By Telegraph. —Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. While his mother saved his twin sisters, and a neighbour dragged his brother through a window, Raymond King, aged nine, was burnt to death at 1 o'clock this morning in his parents' home in Gardiner's Road, Harewood. The brother, David, aged six, is in hospital suffering from burns on his hand and face. Raymond wandered from his own bedroom into his mother's, and perished there. The father, Mr. Edward King, was absent from home on relief work. A neighbour, Mrs. F. Hilton, states that she saw flames leaping from the King's house. Mrs. King was in her nightdress, and she had the two little girls with her then. Another neighbour saved the boy David by dragging him through the window. Raymond was still inside, but it was impossible to get into the house, as the flames were fierce and blowing right across the door. Nothing could be done. "There was no water or anything that could help to fight the fire," said Mrs. Hilton. "We were helpless. It was terrible." It is believed that the fire began in a bedroom. The house, which had four rooms, was in ashes in half an hour. The dead boy's body was found in hie mother's room, beside her bed. He had been ill with tonsilitis, and his mother was up late last night attending to him. It is believed that he was too dazed to get out when awakened by smoke. One of the girls was saved by the mother taking her out of her burning cot and daeliing out of the blazing room.