TWO MYSTERIOUS FIRES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1057, 21 February 1911, Page 6

TWO MYSTERIOUS FIRES.

. ♦ ; — ..A MAN IN THE DIXIXG-KOOM. IBy Tclccraph-Prcts Association.) Auckland, February 20. An inquest concerning tlio death of tho old man Albert Kerns, who met his end in tho (ire at ".Scotia House" boarding establishment in ltobson' Street 011 Saturday morning, was held this morning by Mr. T. Uresham and a jury of six. Sergeant llarvey represented the police. I»r. F. W. King deposed that the causo ot death was suffocation from smoke. Deceased was formerly an inmato of tho Costley Home, aud was very iuiirm. C. A. Woollcy, superintendent of tlm Fire Brigade, said tho door of deceased's bedroom on tho upper iloor was hard to open. AVitiWfs found tho old man lying dead on the iloor with .his head against tho door. To n juryman: A fccblo old mail would not live nioro than u minute iu a room filled with smoke. ' Ettio Short, daughter of tho proprietress of "Scotia. Home," said deceased was about 72 years of age. 110 had been living at tho boardiughouse for over Jfl mouth?. Ho was a widower with a grownup family. Tho night before the fire witness and her mother went carefully o\er the houso and everything was all light. Tho. previous Sunday thcro had been another iiro in tho house. Her mother woke up and found tho room full of smoke. The iiro was in an unoccupied bedroom on the ground Iloor, and the mattress was completely burned. They got it out just as the lira was reaching the walls. Threo nights before ;siis .her mother heard someone walking about downstairs, and, going down, found a man in the dining room. 110 refused to answer when asked what he was doing, and then made off. Tho following night something wis removed from tho table, and tho third night tho mysterious lire broke out. They hod no idea how it happened. Their usual cjsloin was to lock the front door and put a lilted chair under tho knob of tho back door. The firo on Saturday morning started downstairs, but sho could give 110 idea how" it was' caused. There was nothing about the placo likely to cnuso a lire. There was 110 stove. They used gas for cooking. , Mrs. Short 6tatcd that on tho occasion | of the firo on tho Sunday previous to last Saturday tho mattress and pillows of 0110 bed had been put on tho other bed in tho sparo 'bedroom, where they found tho fifo. Sho did not think anyone could' have obtained admission to tho houso 011 Friday last between 11 p.m., when sho locked up, and a quarter to four, when tho firo broke out. The jury found that death was causcd by suffocation from fire.