FATAL FIRE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 118, 20 May 1914, Page 10

FATAL FIRE

EVIDENCE AT THE INQUEST THE CORONER'S VERDICT Before Mr. D. G. A. Cooper, S.M., yesterday afternoon the inquest was held on the death of Susannah Ackerman, oged fifty -three years, a married woman living apart from her husband, and an unidentified man, both of whom lost their lives in a firo in the Manchester Private Hotel, Courtenay-place, in the early hour 3 of Sunday morning. Sergeant Kelly conducted the case for the police, and Mr. J. O'Shea watched the proceedings on behalf of the City Corporation. ; Harold Pinnock, proprietor of tho Manchester Private Hotel, said the premises were of brick, three stories ( high. Both deceased came to the hotel at 7 p.m. on Saturday, gave the name 3 of Air. and Mrs. Wilson, and engaged room No. 8 on the first floor. They said that they were going to the pictures, and witness did not see any more of them after that. There were nineteen rooms in the hotel, and the inmates, including the staff, numbered twenty-three. Witness retired at midnight, being the last one to go to bed. Everything was then in order. There was a small fire in the kitchen range. Witness, in describing ' his discovery o£ the fire, said that he could not go along the passage and warn the inmates because the heat was so terrific. He was singing out when he went to the fire-escape. He had no idea ' what caused the fire. All the persons taken to tho Hospital as a result of the fire occupied rooms on tho first floor on the east side. There was one fire escape on the front of the building and two platforms on the east side leading to a ladder at the south of tho building. There was a sort of an arch through which one had to get to the back. Deceased had made no enquh-ies on Saturday night when they booked their rooms concerning fire-escapes. The ladder leading down the front of the building abutting on Courtenay-place was about Bft or 10ft from the ground, being tied up with rope. Mr. O'Shea : Don'fc you think it is a funny thing that both doora leading on to the back fire-escape were tied up with a bit of rope? Witness said he was not aware of this circumstance. Mr. O'Shea (to the Coroner) : I am sure tho door was tied up before the fire. Tho superintendent of tho Fire Brigade pointed it out to me. Ellen Dotnb, a housemaid employed at the Manchester Hotel, said that she occupied room No. 6 at the back of the hotel. She 'retired to bed at twenty past eleven, and woke^ again at twenty to four through hearing someone shouting "help." Witness grabbed her overcoat, opened the window and got down the fire-escape. She did not know whether the deceased, who occupied the opposite room, had a light in the room. Sydney Beck, porter at the hotel, said he went to bed at 9 15 p.m. on Saturday, He did not see the deceased. The general noise and clatter awoke him shortly before 4 o'clock in the morning. He- went into the bathroom, opened the window, and got on to the fire-escape. Henry Joseph 'Ackerman identified the body of the deceased as that of his mother. She had lived apart from her husband for the last, seven years. He last saw hei alive on Saturday afternoon, when she did not appear to be sober. He did not know where his mother resided. Alfred James Phillips, of Gisborne, said he stayed at the Manchester Hotel in a room on the third floor. He endeavoured unsuccessfully to find a means of escape until he made his way to the back window, and made his escape by 'means of a drain pipe. Alfred Campbell Hawkins, cab-driver, who resided at the Manchester Hotel, also gave evidence. GIVING THE ALARM". Constable William Hardy gave evidence surrounding his discovery of the fire. After he had kicked on the door of the hotel and cried fire in order to alarms the inmates, he went to the Taranaki-street fire alarm and gave the alarm. He then went back to the fire and assisted several of the inmates to get off the tire-escape on the front of the building. ' * Sergeant Taylor in his evidence said that when he arrived on the scene the whole' back of the building on the first floor was one seething mass of flames. The fire brigade appeared on the scene about five minutes after he had given the alarm at Taranaki-street. Just after he got to the fire he sent another constable to the Tory-street alarm box. When he gave the alarm at Taranakistreet he lound the glass in the box had already been broken. Witness pressed the button to make sure. There had evidently been a fierce fire in the room j which did not contain any window opening on to the open air. The room was lighted by a window overlooking the staircase. From the way the fire appeared to have originated the deceased, unless they got out instantly, would have had no possibility of escape. It was a wild, boisterous night, with a howling southerly gale. Harry Tait, "Superintendent of the Municipal Fire Brigade, said that the brigade received a call at 3.38 a.m. on Wunday from the alarm box situated at the corner of Taranaki-street and Courtenay-place. Sixteen men and two machines immediately proceeded to the fire. From " the position of the bodies of the two deceased it did not appear that they had made any attempt to escape. The fire escapes on the eastern side of the building had no ladder reaching from them immediately to the ground. They were connected with an archway leading to two doors at the back of the building. Of these doors the one leading to the fire-escape was closed, being made fast with a piece of rope line. There were no handles on the door and it was impossible to open it from the outside. In the circumstances if the building had been provided with fire-escapes he did not think it would have saved the lives of the two deceased, it would be inadvisable to have a ladder on the eastern side of the building, because people might get used to it only to eventually find that it had been taken away, by virtue of the fact that . it was on other property and had no right there. To Mr. O'Shea : It was usual for the brigade to clear the station half a minuto after _ receiving the alarm. On the occasion in question witness thought they maintained that aveiage. Witness did not think the brigade took five minutes to reach the fire. The building was completely exposed to tho southerly gale. CORONER'S REMARKS. The Coroner, in returning a verdict that the deceased were accidentally burnt tp death, said tha,t evidence Went to show that the fire had evidently started in the kitchen. The police evidently did all they could to aiouse the inmates of the hotel and to summon the fire brigade. The evidence also showed that the brigade used all expedition in getting to^ the fire as soon as they were called. The front fire-escape appeared to have been accidentally tied up, but he did not think that had anj thing to do with the injuries received by the fout inmates who had to be sent to the Hospital. The accident to the woman who was injured ip leaving the building was evidently caused by her fright. As to the stiliiciency of fire-eeca.pes, bethought that there were as many thero as could bo ejected. A& had been pointed out,

it would not have been advisable to erect fire-escapes on the eastern side of the hotel. In the circumstances this would have been false security. Concluding, the Coroner 1 commented that even had thero been more fire-escapes the two deceased would, apparently, not have escaped death.