Boy dies and woman badly hurt in shed fire

Press, 19 October 1977, Page 11

Boy dies and woman badly hurt in shed fire

PA Wellington A boy, aged five, died and a woman was seriously hurt, when the shed they were sleeping in was burned out at Kakariki (near Feilding) on Sunday night. The woman is in a critical condition in the Palmerston North Hospital. She has extensive bums to her body. The woman and child were asleep in a bunk. She had been staying in the house but decided she wanted to sleep in the shed, which had no electricity. She was looking after the child who would have had his fifth birthday next month. The woman was awakened by the blaze and ran to the house about 30m away with her clothes on fire to get help.

A man in the house who did not want to be named said, "They used a candle for lighting. The woman said she left it going because she was scared something was going to happen that night.”

“Her clothes were burnt and she was bleeding.” The

family in the house went to rescue the boy but the flames forced them back.

A 13-year-old boy said: “I heard the boy moan twice. I felt around the bunk but I couldn’t find him. “All the walls were burning. Then I ran outside and around the back. I kicked the wall in and got a piece of wire in my foot. "Then the place exploded. I don’t know what it was. I think the child must have climbed under the mattress or under the bed because 1 couldn’t feel him.”

Four cars drove passed while the shed was burning and none of them stopped, the boy said. The chief fire officer of the Halcombe Fire Brigade (Mr E. Judd) said the brigade was called about 11.15 p.m. “When we arrived there was only the shell of the building left. It didn’t take long to get under control.” The police have not released any names and the cause of the fire is not known.