HURRIED ESCAPE

Evening Post, Volume 105, Issue 4, 6 January 1928, Page 8

HURRIED ESCAPE

BLAZE AT AUCKLAND SEVERAL LIVES THREATENED (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, sth January. When a fire broke out in a shop at ■476, Queen street, early this morning, five people who were sleeping on the floor above made a hurried escape in their night attire. Mrs. H. E. Kersey, one of the sleepers, stumbled downstairs in her nightclothes just before the flames broke through her bedroom window. She ran down the street to a fire-alarm, but fortunately someone else had noticed the blaze a few minutes previously. The fire began in a shop occupied by Miss L. Herman, costumiere and dressmaker. Bolls of cloth and silk and other highly inflammable materials in the shop soon turned it into an inferno, and it was only the smart work of the men from the Pitt street fire station which saved the buildings from total destruction. Those sleeping above the shop were Mrs. H. E. Kersey and her husband, Miss Herman, and two Misses Mullett. They were roused by the' noise, of the crackling timber and the smell of smoke at 5.30 o'clock. All made their escape as quickly as possible. Miss Herman's .stock, which was valued at between ,£I2OO and £1400, has been completely destroyed by fire, water, and smoke. Mrs. Korsey, whose bedroom was right above tho shop, lost all her wearing apparel. The building in which the fire occurred is owned by Neville Newcomb, Ltd. It is insured with the General Accident, Fire, and Life Assurance Corporation (Ltd.) for £1100. The shop contents are insured with the same company for £800, and the furniture with the British Traders' } Inroranee .Opr, fcj £40.0. _""____"