TRAPPED IN FIRE

Evening Star, Issue 22804, 12 November 1937, Page 11

TRAPPED IN FIRE

ELDERLY MAN'S DEATH WHARE BURNT T 8 GNUND (Per United Press Association) AUCKLAND, Nov. 11. Apparently overcome by smoke and fumes while asleep, Robert Poston Ritchie, aged 64, was incinerated in, a two-roomed wooden whare in which he lived alone at Brigham’s Creek, near Kumeu, when it was burned to the ground some time before dawn. The tragedy was discovered by a neighbour, and it is the theory of the police that the fire was caused by embers falling from an open fireplace on to a heap of kindling wood, which was customarily kept by the fireplace. After being engaged in his garden on Wednesday, Ritchie was seen to enter his hut about 6 o’clock that evening, according to evidence given at the inquest by Alexander Ralston, who lives in another whare about 50 yards away. Ritchie’s hut was again observed to be safe when Ralston retired about midnight, but when the latter left his whare in the morning he saw the smouldering ruins. Making an examination of the scene, Ralston found the remains of Ritchie on a wire mattress, and he immediately summoned his employer, Alexander Robert Sinton, a well-known farmer, who informed the police. Neither Ralston nor Sinton saw anything during the night to raise their suspicions that the fire had happened. A statement was made at the inquest by Ralston that in the five years he had known Ritchie he had often warned him about being careless with logs falling from the fireplace, where he did his cooking. It was a habit of Ritchie to place logs on the fire that were too large for the grate, and Ralston said that he had frequently seen burning ends fall out on to the floor of the whare.

The coroner (Mr F. K, Hunt, S.M.) said it was a sad and unfortunate tragedy, and he gave his verdict that Ritchie was accidentally burned to death.