FIRE DAMAGES HOUSE

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31383, 31 May 1967, Page 1

FIRE DAMAGES HOUSE

Fire gutted the porch, stairs, upstairs bedroom, and attic in the home of Mr and Mrs L. J. Blackmore, 50 Totara street, last evening. Mrs Blackmore and her four children, the oldest aged 10, were in the back of the house. One of the children noticed the fire in the front, and all escaped without harm. Mrs Blackmore suffered delayed shock. The front of the house was well alight, with fiames pouring from the upstairs bedroom, when firemen from the Harewood and Sockburn stations arrived after Mrs Blackmore had given the alarm at 7.19 p.m. The hall and stairway were full of smoke, but firemen got in through the

back door and took a hose upstairs. A second crew with another hose fought the fire from the front of the building. The blaze was under control 10 minutes after the firemen arrived, but firemen were still at the house at 9 p.m. The fire apparently started in a sofa in a corner of the partly glassed-in porch on the ground floor. The windows in the porch and in the bedroom exploded In the heat, and glass in the front, door melted. The fire burnt through the interior, lining of the wooden house, and studs and joists were damaged. Mr Blackmore, a chemist, was in his shop when the fire broke out. A neighbour took the children for the night