Children Flee Burning Bach

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30937, 18 December 1965, Page 1

Children Flee Burning Bach

Three young children escaped from a burning four-roomed bach on the property of Mr D. G. Jones, a well-known trotting driver and trainer, at Templeton yesterday morning.

The bach, of wood and asbestos sheeting, was destroyed. Firemen from Sockburn and Headquarters station and the Paparua county tender were handicapped by lack of water and could only make sure that the fire did not spread. The alarm was given at 11.11 a.m. Mrs Jones said that her daughter, Leigh, aged four, and Susan and Keith Purdon, aged six and three, were playing together and took a box of matchces from the apprentice’s hut The children later admitted that they lighted paper in the bach. "The paper set fire to the sofa. Susan and Leigh ran outside. They could not find Keith, so Susan ran to the bach. Keith was in a high chair. The fire was really going by then and smoke from the sofa filled the room. Susan got Keith out of the chair and out of the bach,” Mrs Jones said. “The bach is about 40 yards from our house. The first we knew about it was when the children came in and said

there was a big fire. We rushed outside, then put a 111 call into the fire brigade. Paddock On Fire “The bach was well alight when the firemen arrived. Macrocarpa trees round it were alight, and the grass in the paddock was on fire. The fire was fanned by a strong wind. “The firemen were handicapped by lack of water and had to run an engine back and forth to a hydrant, getting 200 gallons of water at a time until the county water tender arrived. “The firemen said they could not have saved the children had they been inside when they arrived. They could not save the bach, but they put the trees and grass out and kept the fire from spreading from the bach. The asbestos sheeting kept exploding and we had to stand well back as pieces flew everywhere,” Mrs Jones said. A lot of clothes, furniture, and an almost new pram in the bach were destroyed, Mrs Jones said.