BURNED TO DEATH

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 122, 8 February 1923, Page 6

BURNED TO DEATH

TWO LIVES LOST AT LIGAR BAY FIRE IN FARMHOUSE fIY TBLEGBAPH.—PBBBS ASSOCIATION. Nelson, February 7. Definite details of tho fire tragedy Ligar Bay. in tho Takaka district, have now been received. They show that the fire occurred in daylight, not during the night. Mr. Thomas Organ, the owner of the farmhouse, lit a firo in the kitchen stove, and went out to milk shortly after 6 a.m. A howling gale was blowing at the time. Tho cowshed was seventy yards away from Ac house. A quarter of an hour later Mr. Organ noticed that the house was in flamest He rushed back, but was too late to save anything.

The victims, John Gillyard, aged 70 years, and the six-year-old daughter of Air. Organ, slept in a room downstairs, adjoining the kitchen. Mrs. Organ and two younger children were also downstairs, but were further away from the seat of the fire. Mrs. Organ got out with her two infants, and made for a side window to the room where Gjllyard and the oldest girl slept. Gillyard came to the window, and exclaimed: “Oh, iny God!” and went back into the room. This was the last seen of him alive. The bodies of Gillyard and tho girl were found together, charred to cinders. The old man, while evidently dazed, endeavoured to rescue the girl, and both succumbed to the flames. The building was over forty years old, 'and-very dry. The gale had blown live embers from the stove into the room, and the whole place was ablaze in a few minutes. Gillyard came originally from the West Coast. Mr. Organ is a returned soldier.