Cat Gave Alarm

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31207, 3 November 1966, Page 18

Cat Gave Alarm

The owner, and yesterday morning the sole occupant, of the Gresham Hotel, was wakened soon after 5 a.m. by the family cat. Nigger, at his bedroom door on the top floor of the two-storey building. Mr Murray, obeying his

wife and his daughter who said that Nigger was not allowed to sleep inside at night, sleepily took the cat downstairs and put him out the door. “I wended my way upstairs, to find smoke filling the passage,” Mr Murray said yesterday. “I had a job getting to the telephone In the private bar upstairs to ring the fire brigade, and then another job opening the front door to direct the firemen down the side alley to the rear because the keys were in my smokfilled bedroom.

“My wife and daughter were in Blenhiem, and Nigger, now my third-best friend, saved the day.” The brigade received the call at 5.13 a.m. and five engines, including the turntable ladder, were sent to the blaze. The fire was out within 10 minutes.

A staff room on the top floor was gutted and two storerooms immediately below were severely damaged. Smoke and water caused damage to other rooms. The hotel and contents are insured. “Nigger did not return for three hours—but had the tact to beat my family home,” Mr Murray said.