TRAPPED BY FLAMES

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 120, 17 November 1936, Page 11

TRAPPED BY FLAMES

FIVE MEN ON FERRY BOAT

DESPERATE RESCUE

SYDNEY, November 16.

Five workmen were trapped this afternoon in a fierce fire which practically destroyed one of the Manly ferry boats, the Bellubera, at the company's private wharf in Neutral Bay. All were rescued alive after desperate and courageous efforts by firemen. One | man, however, died on the way to hospital. The Bellubera had just been thoroughly reconditioned and converted from a coal to an oil-burner. The men were in the engine-room, which suddenly burst into flame, their exit being barred. One man shouted the alarm through a porthole. Fire brigades poured tons of water on the flames, and finally cut a large hole in the side of the vessel with oxy-acetylene blowpipes. Two firemen entered wearing asbestos suits and carried the workmen through dense smoke and fumes to the wharf. The large crowds which gathered wondered how it was possible that the men could be alive.

The boat was burned to the water's edge. The damage is estimated at £50,000.