MYSTERIOUS FIRES

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 55, 7 March 1922, Page 7

MYSTERIOUS FIRES

THE DARLING 3*blNT HAPPEN- .. INGS. ■ . ' . (Ulflttl PRIB9 ASSCCIATIOH.—COPTRIf tIf.) ' SYDNEY,- 6th March. At the inquiry into the fires at Darling Point early Jast month, the Coroner's verdict was that the fires were maliciously caused by some ■unknown person spraying the furniture with some chemical liquid, which burst into flames after a.short exposure to. the atmosphere.

; [An old, rambling, 'two-storied house, standing in a "garden shaded by large | fig trees, in Mona-road, Darling Point, -was the scene of a remarkable series of mysterious fires. Curtains, furniture, bedding, and. clothing hanging on tht> walls suddenly and inexplicably burst into flame. Altogether there were nineteen outbreaks in three d.ays. Detectives and firemen were posted in every room in an effort to solve the mystery, but the bed curtains and bedding burst into flnmei, and wet'e reduced to ashes xbefore their eyes. One fireman sat in a large arrftchair, and a second later it'was ablaze under him.. . Another went to draw back the window curtain, and it leapt ' into' flame. While detectives-were'talkin<j-to occupants of the house, the top of the couch caught alight;. Then flames enveloped books and a bookcase. Detectives took a irmior-cnr load of chii-rrecl- curtains 'and, furniture to the Government AnaJvst for examination. Officials of the fire brigade ' believed that some combustible chemical, such as phosphorous, h'ns bean. smeared on the-fm-hiture and sprinkled on the curtains.]