Firemen Seek Youth In Blazing House

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31583, 22 January 1968, Page 1

Firemen Seek Youth In Blazing House

(New Zealand Press Association) WANGANUI, January 21. Two firemen risked their lives early today searching for a young man believed to be in a blazing house. But it was only after the firemen had been driven out by flames that they learned that the young man was spending the night at a friend’s place.

Mr A. G. Simpson suffered superficial burns in an attempt to enter the house to find his son, Douglas. Mr Simpson was wakened about 5 a.m. at his home at 32 Carlton Terrace, Wanganui, and told that fire was sweeping through a bouse at 33 Carlton Terrace, in which he thought his son was asleep. The houses are some distance apart, and Mr Simpson arrived at the same time as three fire engines. Chief Fire Officer M. F. Morton and Fireman A. Schreiber donned breathing apparatus to enter the blazing building to seek the youth. They found his bedroom, but not the youth, and escaped unharmed. Mr Simpson, who tried to enter the house from the rear, suffered burns to his neck, face, and right arm. He was treated at the Wanganui Hospital and allowed to go home. Meanwhile, a telephone call had established that Douglas

Simpson, who was 17 yesterday, had been sleeping at a friend’s home. The wooden house was reduced to a charred shell. Douglas Simpson lost all his personal possessions and his parents lost furniture and personal effects stored in the house.