Fire Rescue Attempt After Cries Heard

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31362, 6 May 1967, Page 14

Fire Rescue Attempt After Cries Heard

(New Zealand P*ess Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, May 5. Three New Plymouth men risked their lives today climbing in the window of a burning house to attempt to rescue what they believed was a child inside crying with fear.

The men, Messrs R. S. Basher, P. McKenna, and C. Sharpe, were the first to arrive at the fire which destroyed a large portion of Mr G. V. Soles’s home at 19 Barret road, New Plymouth.

The men quickly examined the house from the outside to see if anyone was inside, but the smoke was too thick for them.

A sound rather like a child crying attracted two of the men and they smashed windows in an attempt to find the source of the cries. The smoke drove them back.

Mr Sharpe attempted to climb into a room, but he too was overcome by the smoke and had to be dragged back

through the window by Mr Basher. He later collapsed and had to be treated with the rescuscitator.

A group of four firemen who later entered the house wearing breathing apparatus found the “child” to be the Soles’s pet cat, Ginger. The cat appeared none the worse for his experience. The fire started in the Soles’s house, which is situated in a sparsely populated section of New Plymouth, this afternoon. By the time the blaze was noticed, the flames

had a good hold on the back of the house.

The brigade managed to confine the fire to this area.