BLIND MAN'S BRAVERY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 18, 21 July 1939, Page 9

BLIND MAN'S BRAVERY

A FIGHT WITH FIRE

WOMAN'S SCREAMS FOR HELP

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, July 17

The bravery of William Williams, a blind man of 80 years, and the prompt action of a neighbour, Barney Duggan, saved Mrs. Linda Claxton, 50, Williams's housekeeper, from being" burnt to death in her uedroom.

Mrs. Claxton was lying on her bed when, the police believe, a cigarette set fire to the bedclothes. Mrs. Claxton called for help, and Williams, who was sitting in the backyard on the sun, groped his way into the house. The smell of smouldering clothes led him to the bedroom, where he could feel the heat from the fire.

"I swept my hands over the bed until I found the spot which was burning," he said. "Mrs. Claxton was lying on the bed, and as I did not know how extensive the fire was, I stumbled outside and filled a jug with water from a tub. I carried it into the bedroom, and again feeling the bed with my hands until I got to what seemed to be the heart of the fire, I threw the water on to the flames. I kept doing this until another man arrived."

Duggan, living a few doors away, saw smoke pouring out of the bedroom window. He heard Mrs. Claxton screaming for help, and ran to the house, carried Mrs. Claxton outside, and smothered the flames, which had set fire to her clothing and had singed her hair. Then he dragged the blazing bedclothes outside .and was fighting the fire in the bedroom when the fire brigade arrived.

The fire was confined to the bedroom, and when Mrs. Claxton was rescued the flames had extended from the bed to a dressing table, which was scorched. She was treated for burns about the hands and face and for shock.