Mothers face court action

Press, 21 August 1978, Page 1

Mothers face court action

The police have started custody proceedings against two women whose children had to be rescued from a burning Hoon Hay house on Friday evening. Three girls, aged three, five, and seven, were alone in the house in O’Leary Street . when the blaze broke out about 10 p.m., according to the police.

The three children were rescued by neighbours and passers-by.

The eldest suffered a cut leg and minor burns as she escaped through a broken window. She was treated at Christchurch Hospital and discharged. The other two children — one of whom is deaf — were not injured. The women, both solo mothers, returned to the

house some tune alter their children had been rescued, according to the police. They face proceedings laid under the Children and Young Persons Act, involving custody of the three children. The case will come before the Christchurch Children and Young Persons Court today. Christchurch detectives are still investigating the fire, which damaged two bedrooms and spread through tite roof. A C. 1.8. spokesman said the fire had been seated in two places — in wardrobes in the two front bedrooms He said the police were investigating the possi- ’ ility of the fires having ueen started by a burglar