THE PORT CHALMERS FIRE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12851, 9 July 1907, Page 7

THE PORT CHALMERS FIRE.

ANOTHER DEATH.

A GRAPHIC STORY

(rKBSS ASSOCIATION TtXBORAU.) DUNEDIN, July 8. Further details of the Port Chalmers fire show that Kathleen Rehu, aged 11, d';ed in tho Hospital last evening after great suffering from burns, making three lives lost. Willi;**, iiuberticid supplies tho following narrative: —I camo from tho Bluff about three weeks ago to work on tho new graving dock at Port. My poor wife only arrived last Thursday, and we only took that house for the time being I camo back from stoneciushing ut the dock at 9 o'clock on Saturday n.ght, and went to bed after putting" out tho hie, fliid, iwith the wife, talked about our prospects tisHi about midnight. We had no light burning, and I fell off to sleep. I remember nothing more till I was awakened by loud crackling, and saw a volume of suffocating smoke coming in at tho bedroom door. Jumping out of bed, I found a groat column of fire roaring up the staircase. Our escape was cut oil, and as tho smoke was suffocating 1 rein to the window, and, smashing tho glass, looked oiU. There was not a soul in Bight. Tongues of flame wero darting in at the door, and there was not a n.omcnt to bo lost.) *>houting to my wife to throw the children down to mo and then follow herself, 1 jumped out of tho window. I was erased with -agony, end do not remember reaching the ground. All the windows glowed red with the tiro that raged wittiiu, und 1 kept crying out, '■Oh 1 my wife and child," but no on© seemed to hoar mc. I shouted up to her to mako haste with tho children, but thero was no reply—only smoke rolling heavily through tho broken glass. Then I scaled th© side of the house. How I mar-aged it 1 cannot tell. I wa* mad with grief and fear for my wife and children. I reached tho sill and beat in the sash with my fists. Choking and blinded, 1 staggered into the room and trod right on the prostrate body of my sister-in-law. My head seemed to bo bursting, and I could not breathe. I thought 1 heard voices in the street below, so, seizing the child I throw her out of tho Avindow in the hope tlmt someone might be waiting below to catch her. . Thero wero no of my wife or little boy. I was on the point of suffocating, and, reeling to the window, I fell out of it and r'oii.emliered no more. Ohl my poor wife and children uro burnt to death. Jt is too horrible, nnd will drive mc crazy. It was tho oldest house in Port Chalmers, and there wi-.s no fire escape. It was infested with rats from top to bottom, and they might have caused the fire by dragging away loose matches. We had made 6uch plans, und this is tho end of it. My wife and boy will not be feeling pain again, that's one good thing. Sho came from Moeraki, poor girl, and she and the boy will go back there to be buried. I am in the Druids' Lodge, I'm thankful to say. William Haberfield is twenty-seven years old. His grandfather arrived in Moeraki in 1830, and married a Maori woman. Haberfield is a respectable, hard-working man, and wa* devoted to his wife and family. His parents reside at Greenhills, near the Bluff. Mrs Haberfield had been married before, and the" child who wa* burnt with her was the youngest child of her first husband. •

Haberfield'B condition Is not serious