MOTHER'S HEROISM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 141, 16 June 1936, Page 15

MOTHER'S HEROISM.

BLAZING HOUSE DRAMA. 3 1 * SAVES CHILDREN. LONDON, May 30. A collier's wife, defying all attempts to stop her, entered a blazing house at Goose Green, Wigan, and rescued her children after men had tried and failed. She was Mrs. Mary Jane Mackinson, 28, of 40, Brackley Street. She had been nursing her 14-montlis-old soil through pneumonia, and had stayed up many nights. Her husband insisted that she should stay in bed with her son and another three-year-old boy. Mrs. Mackinson was awakened by smoke in the room, went downstairs and found an empty cot alight and flames spreading rapidly. She ran out and gave the alarm. ' . Men rushed to the house, but by this, time the kitchen was well alight. 'Mrs. Mackinson called out, "My children areupstairs." A number of men made rescue attempts, but all were driven back by flames and smoke. Neighbours attempted to restrain Mrs. Mackinson, but she broke away from them. She forced her way into the blazing kitchen and up the staircase, which was also in flames. She took the children out of bed, threw open the front bedroom window and dropped the boys into the street, where they were caught by two men. The woman was now almost at the end of her strength and overcome by smoke, but she hung on to the window sill until a ladder was brought. Mrs. Mackinson, with her arms heavily bandaged, said later: "What else could Ido with the children upstairs ? The men could not get in, so I had to go. They said, 'You can't go in'; but I did. I was burned going up the stairs. How I got to my children Ido not know. I took them out of bed and dropped theui through the window."