HEROISM OF NUNS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 25

HEROISM OF NUNS

A few minutes after 100 children had left the evening service in St. Vincent's Chapel' Mill Hill,. London, recently, and while many Sisters of Charity were still present, flre broke out in the roof. Risking their lives amid the burning debris falling from the roof, the sisters made repeated journeys into the chapel to remove sacred vessels and valuable statues. Boys from Mill Hi 11... School helped them. They were unable to lift a marble statue of Our Lady, valued at £200, but, although the roof fell in, neither the statue,nor the altar was damaged. The sisters heard crackling and then saw flames coming from the chapel roof. The fire spread rapidly. Flames leapt high above the chapel and the blaze could be seen for miles. Three fire engines attended from the Hendon and Mill Hill stations. Firemen took grave risks while work-

ing on the chapel roof, 50ft above the ground, in an effort to prevent the flames from spreading to the convent. Portions of the roof threatened to fall and parts of it were hacked away to prevent the flre from extending its hold. The flames crept along the wood and rafters beneath the slates, so that the firemen were sometimes unaware of the exact seat of the fire. As one ,of them stated: "We had to take a I chance that' the fire was in front and not behind." The firemen were ham-pered-considerably by low water pressure, since the chapel occupies one of the highest sites in North London: The chapel, which' was built about 15 years ago, is attached to St. Vincent's ■Convent, the headquarters in England of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de PauL It is on the site of what was once the' home, of Nell Gwyn and Charles 11.