NARROW ESCAPES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 97, 29 April 1929, Page 10

NARROW ESCAPES

EAKLY 3HOENING EIRE

BABY'S TIMELY WARNING

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post")

AUCKLAND, This Day. Awakened by the crying of a nine-wceks-old baby, twelve persons experienced a remarkable escape from a blazing boarding-house at 107, Wollcsley street West in the early hours of yesterday morning. The building, which was two-storied and contained seven rooms, was almost completely destroyed. Had it not been for tho baby arousing its parents, tho occupants of the house would probably have been trapped by tho flames. As it was, they escaped only in time. Some went down the staircase, which was already almost tottering, and others got out by jumping from the windows of the upper story. The house was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. W. Agnew and three young children, Mr. and Airs. J. P. Walsh and their baby, and four men boarders. All slept upstairs except Mr. Agnew. At 4 o'clock in the morning Mr. Walsh was awakened by the crying of a baby. For a time he took no particular notice, but as tho child commenced to scream, as though terri/iod, ho got out of bed. Then Jio found the passageways upstairs were full of smoke, and the roar of tho flames could be heard distinctly. On. going outside the bedroom Mr. Walsh was almost overcome by the smoke. He roused his wife, and then gave the alarm to the others, all of whom were sleeping soundly. By the time all the occupants of the houso were awakened the lower part of the house was burning fiercely. The flames were undermining the stairway. Mrs. Agnow's first thought was for her children, and with almost superhuman strength she picked them up and struggled down the blazing stairs almost blinded with the smoke. She fought her way to tho front door, and there, assisted by her husband, managed to get outside. Mr. Walsh also had to descend the stairs, and they reached safety without mishap. Tho four men boarders occupied two rooms upstairs. On hearing the cry of fire by Mr. Walsh the two occupants of one room slammed the door, and, without waiting to collect their belongings, clambered through the window opening on to a narrow alleyway separating the burning house from that of next door. One man hesitated on the window sill for a moment, and then jumped to the ground, 18ft below. His companion jumped across the alleyway on to the roof opposite. The two other men, who occupied a room an the front of the building, also decided not to risk the smoke and flames inside the house. They climbed through the window of the bedroom on to the roof of the front verandah, and from there jumped on to a small grass plot 15ft below. When the occupants were all out Mr. Agnew missed the man who had leaped on to the next door roof, and rushed back into the house to look for him. However, he was driven back by the- flames, and by.that time the missing man had reported.

There was no hope of saving the house whan the brigade arrived,, as the building was then a blazing mass. The occupants had all gathered on the roadway in their night attire. Nothing was saved from the house except a purse belonging to Mrs. Agnew. and a child's perambulator. Shortly after the shivering inmates were taken to . a nearby house and given shelter.'