BOARDERS JUMP FOR THEIR LIVES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 230, 27 June 1944, Page 4

BOARDERS JUMP FOR THEIR LIVES

Fire In Private Hotel ELDERLY WOMAN INJURED (Bi’ Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, June 26. One woman was admitted to hospital with a broken foot through falling from an upper story balcony and other boarders saved their lives only by jumping from windows many feet from the ground when fire broke out at “Wilton" private hotel, Khyber Pass Road, at 6.45 this evening. The tire swept through the old wooden building with alarming rapidity, and extensive damage was done. The injured woman was Mrs. Lillian Tolly, a widow, aged 52. She was taken to the Auckland Hospital by the St. John Ambulance, where she was admitted suffering from a fracture of the right foot. About 23 people, including two children, boarded at the hotel, which is occupied by Miss E. Sadler. The building is a wooden structure which has been standing for many years. The main portion consist's of two stories, and a more modern single-story addition had been erected at the back of the building. The boarders were at dinner in their own apartments when the fire was first noticed. On opening the door of the front room on the ground floor, a returned soldier, who was investigating a smell of burning, was confronted by a sheet of flame. Calling out a warning to the other occupants be raced upstairs to a room occupied by his wife and son. The boy was able to make his escape by the back staircase, but this retreat was soon cut off by the fast-spreading Hames. The returned soldier assisted his wife over the balcony outside his room, and she slid to safety down the supporting post. More difficulty was experienced with Mrs. Tolly, who lost her hold and fell heavily to the ground. The other occupants of the upper story were faced with no alternative but to jump as the balcony does not extend round the house. One young woman leaped from a top window, landing uninjured on the grass below. The boarders on tbc ground floor were more fortunate, but many of these were forced to scramble out of windows to make a hasty exit. In almost every case the occupants escaped with only the clothes they were wearing. Ihree fire engines attended the outbreak, and when the machines arrived the fire was burning fiercely throughout the building, with flames bursting from every window Though it was soon under control a great deal of damage already had been done.