DEAF MAN RESCUED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 149, 26 June 1934, Page 8

DEAF MAN RESCUED.

FREEMAN'S BAY FIRE. CARRIED FROM BED. Asleep with a are raging near him, Mr. Michael Lynch, a middle-aged deaf man, was rescued by his friend, Mr. W. Cain, when fire, broke out in a fourroomed cottage in Union Lane, a narrow blind side street, off Willow Street, Freeman's Bay, about 12.30 this morning. There had been some conviviality earlier in the evening and about midnight Mr. Lynch went to bed, "leaving Mr. Cain in another part of the house. A woman was also in the house. Fire apparently broke out in the kitchen and quickly the whole house was blazing. Mr. Cain and the woman ran out, and it is stated that when Mr. Lynch made no appearance, his friend dashed back into the blazing house, dragged him out of a front room, and half-carried, half-dragged him to the roadway.

Mr. Lynch was severely burned about the face and body. He was taken by the St. John Ambulance to the Auckland Hospital and it was reported to-day that lie was doing fairly well.

Four cottages stand in a row at the foot of Union Lane. Xext door to the blazing house lived a bachelor, next to him a Maori woman with four children, and in the end house was a family of five. All the children were taken from their beds to the safety of the roadway in ease the flames should spread. One family started to remove their furniture. The houses were all old, and had there been a wind the fire might have raced through the four. As it was the brigade quickly gained control.

The- house was gutted and all its contents were destroyed, and one wall of the house next door was scorched.