WOMAN BURNED TO DEATH A

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26492, 6 August 1951, Page 6

WOMAN BURNED TO DEATH A

FIRE IN SYDENHAM HOUSE

A woman was burned to her bedroom after her house had J**" damaged by Are on SaturdaymorningShe was: Mrs Mary Ann Couser, a widow, | about 58, of 21 Walton street, syo- , enham. Units from Sydenham Fire and the Central Fire Station foun that the fire, which had a good Mi . had evidently been smouldering i some time. The alarm was given oy a fireman at the Sydenham station ® Mrs Couser was in bed and atone in the house when the fire sla v*" She had been in ill-health for so weeks. It is thought that she . overcome by smoke during tne nJ- . There were no heating apphanejj her bedroom, which was situaur ■ the rear of the house, and it is moi, « that a lighted cigarette started! w Mr Herbert Graham Vincent, a ri'l porter at a hotel in Christchurch, .1 had boarded in the house for me than six years, said the house locked when he left at 9.30 pm ' Friday and he did not return to house until 8 a.m. on Saturday. The room in which Mrs Couser s > was destroyed, but firemen saved • rest of the house, which was slig damaged by water. An inquest will be opened this a noon.

MOTORCYCLIST. KILLED

PASSENGER SERIOUSLY injured (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, AugUS]I A motor-cyclist was killed wl cycle crashed into the concrete .. of the sub-station bridge, nea kche, just before 2 p.m. yesterdaywas: io of Mr Kenneth William Stokes, Pakaraka. . n. n i» of A Dillion rider, Mr James Rap Ohaeawai. was seriously mjureu wa . accident. He was taken to tne ~ n kawa Hospital by the Kaikohe Ambulance. His condition this ev was reported to be very serious-