SIX MEN KILLED

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2110, 30 March 1914, Page 6

SIX MEN KILLED

AND MANY INJURED:

FIRE & A TERRIFIC EXPLOSION.

KILLED. DENNIS MAHONEY, Police Constable, JAMES COMESKY, Postmaster. GEORGE TAYLOR, , Railway Porter, WILLIAM FLYNN, Railway Cuard. John wesley Vivian, Shop Assistant. Michael TOOHEY, Carpenter.

INJURED.

v, CHAS. WOLTERS. . JAMES HAGAN. VIRGIL M'GOVERN. ; I EVERD E. H. PELLING, j. ' THOS. COSTELLO.

f-'v "./One of the most horrifying tragedies I ■■ '■ in tho history of tho district woke most ! :; of .the people of tlie TJpper Hutt, Val- ■■: ley from their beds shortly after mid- | : night, yesterday (Sunday) morning, ■ the result being the de- • etruction by fire and osplo''sion of. Messrs.' Benge and Pratt's "■general store, serious damage to azljoint>; ing properties, and, what is more seri- ■■•• pus, the loss of no fewer than six lives. ; Many other people who were either in or : about the blazing premises at,the time .'of the explosion,-and a number of these '■A were more or less seriously injured. ■ t : There is yet the < grave possibility of r ; the list of fatally injured being added

HERBERT COLLETT, HERBERT WEAVER. T. THOMAS. E. CRABTREE.

heap, and nothing could be done but allow it to burn out, the one lead of hose being utterly ineffective. . * THE.FIRE SPREADS. At this point the hose was directed to saving the hotel, which was threatened in the front near corner. In tho meantime.the fire spread on the other (northern) side through an upstairs side window in the premises of ..Messrs. J. Hazelwood and Co., general storekeepers. This building, a substantial brick structure, is fortunately divided in two places with ' stout brick . walls. Once the fire got a start inside the first section, devoted to drapery, it travelled fast, and soon gutted that part of tho building. It might have proceeded further had not the fire-fighters diverted their attention from tho hotel. The steady stream of water, too, had- a certain effect, and the brick wall acting as a buffer, the fire- burnt itself out in Hazelwood's drapery department. The other portion of the building was practically unharmed. ' The hotel suffered seriously from the effects of. the explosion inore than by fire (as is more fully narrated elsewhere), and a small onestoried wooden building— a sort of leanto close beside Benge and Pratt's store —was totally destroyed by fire,. after being knocked over by the Concussion.