THE WENTWORTH EIRE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12485, 20 October 1938, Page 6

THE WENTWORTH EIRE

INQUIRY HELD VERDICT OF ACCIDENTAL DEATH IE William Wright'.Redmond, the 13-year-old' -lad,';who : was killed, at the Wentworth Hotel fire dn September 10, had remained 'in his bedroom, firemen could -have saved him easily, said Fourth-Officer- Barber at the iiufuest in Sydney on Tuesday of last week. , '■ , No : fiames were ill. the room, he added, but the heat was intense. ■ Evidence was given that the boy appeared, at a fifth floor window, called for help, and then, shouted that he would have to jump. A crowd in the street below implored -him not to jump, but, a few seconds later, the boy fell and was killed. The City Coroner found that the lire and the two death resulting from it wore caused accidentally.. The Coroner, Mr Oram, was inquiring into the origin of the file and the deaths of William Wiight Redmond (13) and Mary Jane Byers (82), widow. “When I came across from my hotel,” said Leslie Pearce, manager of Petty’s Hotel, “I heard what I thought was a woman’s voice calling for help.

“I saw somebody on the sth floor. I could not tell whether it was a man or a woman, hut I thought it was a young person calling for help. “A little later this person called out, “I’ll have to jump.’ A crowd had collected in Jamieson-street, and everybody called out not to jump.

Pearce said -he, went for a ladder, and when he returned, the .boy • appeared to have one leg over the. sill and his head out-of the window. He was still calling out that he would have to jump. : A second or two after that he fell from the window. “I'did not see any flames, but these seemed to he smoke, there,” Pearce added.

Herbert Cook, page boy at the Wentworth, said that when he raised the alarm of fire a switchgirl told him that she could not raise the brigade and that he should go to the fire-alarm in George-street, but as he was on his way the fire engines passed him. The 'brigade, he thought, reached the hotel about seven minutes after he discovered the fire. . Fire Under Stairs Hubert Simpson Macey, company accountant, of New Zealand, who occupied a room on the third floor of the hotel on the night of the fire, said that on iris way to bed he noticed no smoke, but he had been in bed only about 15 minutes when he heard somebody, call “Fire!” “A Mr Stokes gave the alarm, and I ran to him,” said Macey. “I saw flames as I ran along the passageway. The fire seemed to be coming from under the stairway leading to the fourth floor, and made it impossible to go up or down the stairway from the third floor to the fourth.” ’ : • Macey' said that Mrs Redmond told him that her son was' on the fifth floor. He went up in the .lift, hut found the floor a mass of flame. He got back in,the lift to descend, but it stopped at the second floor, where he told a fireman of the boy in 50 4 and that it was impossible to get to him by way of the lift. “It certainly appeared to me that something very inflammable was at the seat of the fire,” said Macey, “judging from the grip it quickly got. I did not smell the fumes of any inflammable liquid.” Fireman Got to Room

Fourth-Officer Barber, of the Fire Brigade, said that the firemen were at the hotel within two minutes of the alarm having been received. “There was a good deal of confusion and excitement,’ ’he said. “Firemen went up the stairway as far as possible. We got to the fourth floor. We heard that a woman had jumped out of a window.” Barber said he went up a back stairway to the fifth floor. He located Room 504, young Redmond’s room,, but there was nobody within. There was no flame within, but the heat was intense. “I would be up in that room two minutes after Mrs Redmond told me her boy was there,” he added. “I also found Room 505, Mrs Redmond’s room, which was locked. Nobody was inside.” “If the lad had remained in his bedroom, we could have saved him quite easily,” said Barber. “As the boy was very badly •burned, I do not think he was burned in the bedroom. He may have attempted to get down the stairway. If he had gone the other way to the back stairway, he could have got away.”-

' Chief-Oflicer Richardson said that the day after* the fire he inspected, the scene of the fire. There was no evidence of flame in the boys loom. In Mrs Byers’ room there were no signs of heat or name. “In my opinion, the hotel is provided with adequate escapes,” he added. Pulled From Flames Arthur ByerS, son of, the dead woman, said that his mother made only two observations on the fire before her death'on September 2G at Sydney Hospital. She said: "It’s pretty hard for a woman my age to be caught in a tire,” and also that a woman had pulled her from* the flames. “While not suggesting that there is anything here to merit criticism, said Mr de Bann, “the Fire Board has taken a very stong view regarding the display of notices telling of emergency exits. It believes there are many cases where notices are not adequately displayed. They hope that this terrible tragedy will provide a lesson. Unfortunately, in the panic which follows a fire, people are liable to make for the escapes they customarily use, instead of the em-

ergency exits.” Coroner's Comments Finding that the fire was can™ accidentally. Mr Oram said th was not the slightest evidence & its origin was malicious. at probably caused through soin eb ? dropping a match or a cigarette * the linen closet under the stajJ* the third lioor. “The extremely sad part i s th two persons lost their lives i n , . which was under control iu a litu more than half an hour," p e c e mented. ‘'The .postmortem revealed that the buy was so badly hur w that he probably would have even if he had not fallen ami f iae ' tured his skull.” Mr Oram added that, though i Ullo danger in his room, the hoy evidently' became terrified and panic-stricken Whether he jumped or fell was problematical. “The means of exit were adequate It appears to me to he one of the unfortunate happenings that nobody can control,” ho concluded. He recorded a finding of accidental death in both cases.