FIRE.

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2321, 27 March 1914, Page 2

FIRE.

AT SUNNYSLDE ASYLUM.

SOME MORE DETAILS

EXCITED WOMEN

SHRIEKS AND GESTICULATIONS

l'Btt I'RESB ASSOCIATION. Christchurch, March 26. Ike lire in the asylum was discovered iii the attic by Nurse Bennett, who rang the bell alarms.. The Fire Brigade was on the scene from the city in seven minutes.. The lire was confined to one wing of the women's ward, the whole wing oeiug gutted. It is believed the cause of the fare was a spark entering the ventilator. The hrst eign of the outbreak was a whiff of smkoe followed, by a tongue of flame, right -in the ceiitre , of the big ward for women, then thronged with . patients. Women screamed and attracted the attention of a nurse, ' who immediately gave the alarm. The task of removing the large body of. irresponsible patients was carried out quickly. In the Mr© tin years ago the outbreak occurred in the aaine place. The brigade concentrated its mam efforts on confining the outbreak, to the stone building- The assistance of bystanders and a number of men ■ uatients was given, but untal iniduay it was still uncertain whether the older portion of th« asylum would be htl At the back of the building about ' 500 women patients, with attendants, were gathered in a large enclosure, Some of the women were ehneking and gesticulating at the fire; others were watching it with rapt atten"riie firo will seriously increase over, crowding, which has already been the subject tor many complaints. .