MAN RESCUED FROM FIRE

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28161, 27 December 1956, Page 6

MAN RESCUED FROM FIRE

House Destroyed At Sefton Mr William Boyce, an elderly; man living alone in a house at Sefton, narrowly escaped being | burnt to death when the house caught fire about SJO p.m. yesterday. The house was seen to be on fire by neighbours, who dragged Mr Boyce from the burning building. No water was available to fight! the fire, which was fanned by a; strong north-west wind. The six- 1 roomed house was completely de-' stroyed. Mr Boyce suffered severe arm j and leg burns and a suspected [ [ fracture of a leg. He was taken: ■by motor transport to Chaneys ' Corner, on the Main North road, i where he was transferred to a (St. John ambulance and taken to I the Burwood Hospital. Late last evening, his condition ; was reported to be satisfactory. GIRL FATALLY INJURED CAR OVERTURNS INTO LAGOON (New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, December 26. A 15-year-old girl was fatally injured in a motor accident near the Ocean Beach freezing works this evening. She was one of a . family of eight—the parents and [ six children—in a car which left the road and after bouncing down a 7ft bank landed wheels uppermost in a stagnant lagoon. The dead girl was: Gloria Leona Milne, eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs William Ewart Milne, of Avon road, j Clifton. Both parents and the other five 1 children were injured. The car, an old model with a fabric top. was travelling north towards Invercargill when ‘ it veered to the left about a quarter of a mile north of the Ocean Beach works, dropped over the bank, and into the lagoon. Some of the family scrambled out of the upturned car, Mrs Milne escaping with the youngest child, a three-month-old baby, in her arms. Passers-by helped with the rescue of the remaining members of the family, and a party of police returning to Bluff also helped. All occupants of the car were covered from head to foot with slimy black mud. The 15-year-old girl severed her (jugular vein in the accident, and j although she was rushed to the I Southland Public Hospital at Kew ■by a Bluff taxi-driver, Mr G. Sands, she died on admission. After medical attention the remaining members of the family were taken to hospital. Half the car was submerged in the slime in the lagoon, and witnesses considered it a miracle that | all members of the family were j not drowned.