FIRES.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20904, 11 July 1933, Page 13

FIRES.

HOTEL NEAR THAMES DESTROYED. MAN BL'KNED TO DEATH. ■ lI'RKSS ASSOCIATION - TJvl.l'.O R All .) THAMES, July 10. The Royal Oak Hotel at Tapu, 12 miles from Thames, was destroyed by fire at 3.15 o'clock on Sunday morning. James Bennett Ludwig, a widower, about 50 years of aj!c, who was a prospector, was burned to death; and Leonard Flynn, a single man, about 40 years of age, a prospector, was taken to hospital With severe burns on the face and hands. His condition is not serious. The proprietor, Mr L. M. Parry, ana his family were living in an attached cottage. He awoke to discover the hotel a mass of flames. Everything was lost. The insurances are not available. Messrs Ludwig and Flynn were the only boarders at the time. The building was owned by Mr W. A. Wilson, of Devonport, father-in-law of the licensee. The cottage and the stables were also destroyed. The insurances were: On the hotel. £1290; on the furniture and stock, £375. At the inquest on Ludwig, Constable Kennedy gave evidence that he found human remains immediately below the room formerly occupied by the dead man. There were charred bones under a wire mattress. Llewellyn Moslcyn Parry, the licensee, stated that all retired about midnight, leaving a fire smouldering in the commercial room grate. The witness was awakened about 3 a.m. by a report and a sound of glass falling on concrete. He saw the fire, and called to the boarders and rescued a child from a semi-detached cottage. He then ran round up the back stairs and called again. Hearing a groan, he went into an adjacent room which was full of smoke and found Flynn unconscious. He dragged him out. Both fell down the stairs. Witness returned to the

head of the stairs, but he was driven back by the flames and smoke and could advance no further. The inquest was adjourned sine die. Further enquiries by the police reveal that Ludwig is survived by a married daughter, Mrs J. Bull, of Ellerslie, find a son, Mr A. L. Ludwig, of Hamilton. Ludwig was formerly a timber worker, and had been prospecting for a few months, in partnership with Flynii, Whose condition is improving. STRAW STACKS BURNED. Two stacks of oatsheaves, weighing about 14 tons, and valued at £35, on the farm of Mr John Muhfo, North road, Styx, were noticed by a milkman to be on fire before 4 o'clock on Sunday morning, and were soon totally destroyed. More than a month ago there was a series of incendiary straw-stack fires in this district, and incendiarism is also thought to be the cause of this latest outbreak.