FOUR DIE IN FIRE

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27961, 7 May 1956, Page 12

FOUR DIE IN FIRE

Farm Homestead Destroyed EARLY-MORNING BLAZE ' (New Zealand Press Association) PALMERSTON NORTH, May 6. Four persons—a farmer, his wife, and their two children—died in a fire which destroyed their home at Tawataia, on the Alfredton road, six miles from Eketahuna, early on Saturday. No positive identification of the remains found has been made, but it is presumed they are those of: ALFRED MONTAGUE STONEWIGG, aged 55, a sheepfarmer; MURIEL MARGARET THOMPSON STONE-WIGG, aged 47, his wife; MARGARET STONE-WIGG, aged 12, a pupil of Chilton St. James School, Lower Hutt, who had just returned home for the May vacation; and JOHN RODNEY STONE-WIGG, aged 10, a schoolboy.

It is believed that someone in the house made a fruitless effort to call neighbours by telephone for assistance, but had to abandon the attempt in the face of the spreading flames. A neighbour on the same party line answered a call between 1.30 a.m. and 1.40 a.m., but could obtain no reply. The time of this call, and a fireblackened alarm clock which had stopped about 1.25 a.m., provide a clue to the time of the fire.

Human remains were found by the police in positions which suggested that each parent had gone to rescue one of the children, but had been stricken by heat or smoke while attemnting to do so. The tragedy was revealed after the discovery of the smoking ruins of the Stone-Wiggs’ house at 5.15 a.m. by two duckshooters, M. Eagle, of Rongomai, and M. Tomlinson, of Pleckville.

When they could find no sign of the owners of the house, they called the Eketahuna police. Later, police from Pahiatua and detectives and a pathologist from Palmerston North were called to the scene of the fire.

At first it was thought that the Stone-Wiggs might be safe, as one of their three motor vehicles appeared to be missing from the farm. It was known that they possessed a car and two four-wheel-drive utility vehicles. The car and one of the utility vehicles were found in .a scorched and blistered garage near the house.

Hope faded, however, when the third vehicle was found in a shed elsewhere on the farm. Police Search Ashes

Cooling the ashes with water from a stream which ran behind the house, police began the search that revealed the remains of four bodies.

At two separate points- in the ruins were found the remains of an adult and a child together. In each case, the remains were under what was thought to have been a child’s bedroom, but at a short distance from the bed-wires. This may mean that each parent had been trying to save a child, but was unable to reach safety. The remains were so charred that it was not until 5 p.m. on Saturday that the pathologist, Dr. W. L. Kenealy, was able io sav with any certainty that they were those of four persons. No clue to the cause of the fire was discovered. The house, a big, old onestorey structure, was surrounded by a macrocarpa hedge, and was in a hollow. It was not visible from any other home in the area. There was no sign of fire when neighbours passed along the road at 11 p.m. About 1.30 a.m. or 1.40 a.m., Mr A. G. Hansen, who was on the same party line as the Stone-Wigg home, heard his telephone ring. He answered the telephone, but there was reply. A check showed that the call had not come through the exchange, but must have been an internal call on the party line.