INVALID SAVED FROM FIRE

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30938, 20 December 1965, Page 18

INVALID SAVED FROM FIRE

(New Zealand Press Association* WELLINGTON, Dec. 19. A man dragged an unconscious invalid from her burning bedroom in a second-storey Petone flat late on Saturday night.

The woman, 51-year-old Mrs D. Butler, was taken to Hutt Hospital by ambulance. She suffered third-degree burns to her arms, legs and buttocks. Her condition tonight was fair. Hero of the dramatic rescue was Mr S. Rayner, who dashed into the block of flats when bis 18-year-old son, Kevin, smelled smoke. Mrs Butler was alone in

the flat which Is one of eight in a two-storey block in Hardham crescent Her husband and two daughters had gone to the airport to meet their ton off the plann Mr Rayner, aged 52, a Petone hardware merchant. Ilves in the fiat below. The two families have been neighbours Bril years. Mn Butler to thought to have fallen asleep while smoking a cigarette in bed. The cigarette burned through the bedclothes into the mattress. When Mr Rayner ran into the smokedilled room, flames had already destroyed most of the bed. all the bedclothes and moat of the carpet Mn Butler, an invalid for the last eight years, was heavily drugged and remained unconscious as she was dragged through smoke and flames to safety. “I couldn’t see fl thing when I opened the door . . . the smoke was so thick," said Mr Rayner later. “She was lying on the bed enveloped in flanraa. I picked her up by the shoulders and dragged her out Into the hall. “ftat’s all there was to it Anyone else would have done the same. All the credit should go to my son. Kevin, who saw the smoke. “He was sure there was something wrong. But I didn't think much of it at first He bad to talk me into InveatigatX units from the Petone Fin Brigade arrived at about 11 p.m. Firemen extinguished the flames with high pressure hoses. It was all over in 15 minutes. ' “Stan saved my wife’s life I don't know how to thank him.’* said Mrs Butler's husband.