Police Investigating Wellington Fires

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31773, 2 September 1968, Page 1

Police Investigating Wellington Fires

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, September 1.

Three persons were rescued and thousands of dollars worth of new carpets destroyed in one of two fires which broke out within 15 minutes and half a mile of each other in Wellington on Saturday night.

The first fire broke out in an alley between two Cambridge Terrace flats, both occupied, at 11 p.m.

It appeared to have started in the open front porch of 61 Cambridge Terrace, where an upstairs flat was occupied by a Canadian girl, Miss Sheila McMeekin. “I was just getting ready for bed when I smelt smoke and heard flames cradd’ng,” she said. “I couldn’t get out the door, so I climbed out a back window and across the roof behind the flat.” Others Wakened

Miss McMeekin then climbed into the flat across the alleyway, No. 62, which was also threatened by the fire, and woke the occupants, Mrs S. West and her grandson, Allan, aged nine. “I wasn’t woken by smoke or the noise,” Mrs West said as she huddled in the back of a fire engine with Allan and Miss McMeekin during

the blaze. “The first I knew of it was when Miss McMeekin woke me. Then I called the fire brigade.” “We could not get out the door, as both sides of the alleyway were ablaze, and we had to wait there until the firemen arrived. Although they were not more than two minutes, the room filled with smoke before they came.

“The firemen played their hoses down the alleyway and held the flames back while one led us out,” said Mrs West

Mr D. A. Varley, executive officer of the Wellington Fire Brigade, said Miss McMeekin probably saved Mrs West and Allan.

Carpets valued at thousands of dollars were ruined. They belonged to a carpet-laying firm, M. A. Brownie and Company, Ltd, whose premises were below Miss McMeekin’s flat. Old House Before the engines and men from the Central Fire Station had the first blaze under control, a call was received to an old two-storey house in Nelson Street nearby.

The fire, which apparently began against the outside of the recessed front door of the building, had blazed fiercely inte the upper storey by the time firemen arrived. It was quickly controlled, but one wall, part of the upper floor and some of the ceiling were destroyed. The similar circumstances and close timing and proximity of the two fires have caused a thorough investigation. Fire In School At Titahi Bay yesterday, a fire broke out in the Kura Street Primary School, at 1.45 p.m. It was quickly brought under control, but an office was burnt out, the headmaster’s office was badly damaged, and flames which licked up into the fiat roof took some time to extinguish. Part of a passage was also burnt. The Porirua C. 1.8. are investigating.