Father, Four Children Die; Blast In Home

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30555, 25 September 1964, Page 1

Father, Four Children Die; Blast In Home

A father and his four children were found dead in their Avonhead home after an explosion had set the house on fire last evening. The mother had been out visiting. She was just about to walk up the path to the home when the explosion occurred. The father and the four children were:—

Jozep Nota, of 43 Bentley street, and Joseph, aged five Eleanor, aged four Marie, aged three, and Peter, aged about two.

Mr Nota was a linesman, employed by the New Zealand Electricity Department. He was a Czech. Mr Nota is believed to have been in his late thirties. About 9 p.m. neighbours were startled by an explosion. Seconds later the brick house, on the corner of Bentley and Fovant streets, was a sheet of flame across the front of the house. Within minutes the flames had enveloped the whole of the five-roomed house except for a small portion at the rear. Tiles fell through the roof as the wooden rafters collapsed. Windows blew out. Firemen had no chance of stopping the house from being gutted. The father and his four children were found in the sunroom, at the front of the house, one of the rooms which suffered most damage. Mother Out Mrs Colleen Mary Nota was out at the time. On her return she was taken to a neighbour’s house. She was almost hysterical and in great distress, and was given a sedative by a doctor. Firemen have not estab-

lished the cause of the fire. The police have not yet established the exact cause of the deaths. “A Torch” The house was “a torch" when they arrived, said firemen later. The heat was so intense the firemen had no chance of getting inside the house until the flames had been put out. Before the firemen arrived, a Mr Arnold, a neighbour and former fireman, had tried to get into the house but had been driven back by the flames and heat. The brick west wall of the sitting room was cracked across the middle and blown about sin out of plumb into a V-shape by the force of the explosion. Windows in the house next door were cracked by the explosion. A bedroom next to the sit-ting-room had interior walls shattered. A pillow was blown out of the house to the foot of the boundary fence—a distance of about 30ft. Bodies In Sunroom Bunks for the children in ithis bedroom were destroyed land the iron frames were reduced to a twisted heap. In the sunroom the floor was [burnt through over a large area. The bodies of Mr Nota and his four children, found

in the sunroom, were incinerated. Only an autopsy will establish the exact cause of death, according to the police. They consider the deaths may have occurred before the fire. All the young children were in the sunroom and not in their bunks. Mrs Nota late last night was taken to the Princess Margaret Hospital by a St. John Ambulance. Early this morning she was still under sedatives. She suffered slight abrasions to her face. Chief Superintendent G. W. Alty, Detective Superintendent A. C, B. Wade, Detective Inspector W. E. Hollinshead, Detective Sergeant P. O’Donavan, Sergeant G. Riach, and several other detectives and constables were called to the scene. Detective Inspector Hollins-

head said that intensive inquiries to establish the cause of the explosion would begin at daylight. The explosion, judging by the interior of the house, was very widespread. The whole of the interior of the house was damaged by the blast and the sitting-room and children’s bedroom wrecked. The fire call was received at 9.10 p.m. and four units were sent. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer (Mr C. H. Robin son) rode in one of two units sent from the central station and the other units went from Sydenham and Sockburn. The Chief Fire Officer, Mr L. R. Osmond, also went to the fire. Firemen and detectives were still at the house at 11.30 p.m. The bodies were removed to the morgue.