CHRISTCHURCH FIRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 June 1927, Page 3

CHRISTCHURCH FIRE

GROCER’S HARD LUCK. (Special to "Star.") . CHRISTCHURCH, June 13. Fighting their way throitgh blinding while burning - timbers crackled,, and .fell .about them, Malcolm Anderson, lijs, wife ans three children, escaped death in their beds, when fire, destroyed..,their home early this moaning; ,for the second time in sixteen ihpnths. / .. , They Imd a narrow escape, in ternary last,. They had still; a.? narrower ope. last night. They had lost everything .they had'. . It was the same sixteen; months jago. , . , .. .When Anderson, who qamedrpn, a grocery . bpsjness . in woke shortly after 3 a.m^ ( .tb mis room full of smoke and- ! hear th§ s dl s " turbine of burning timbers in the room adjoining he leapt from the bpd and threw open the door. Clouds of smoke bore down upon him, and \yept into .the , room where ,his, ? and babies slept. Flames were belching noisijy thqrugh the ceiling, pieces of burning timber were becoming detached, . and fell in fiery rain. .His hoing, was doomed.; just siyeß b : a.cene as he had gazed, upon-early one morning in. February,. 1926.. . .., There was no time for hesitation. He awoke liis vijfe and they caught up the children and groped their way through the . kitchen. . It was quite impossible to see. . Sparks .driven by. the wind which, swept through the burning roof, whirled ab.out th,qni, threatening their night attire. Their eyes were stung by the smoke. They dp not know now, how they fought tlicir way to safety., , Their senses were dulled by the shock. They were alinost choked by smoke, and found themselves in a ward at the back of tlje shop, clad only in .night attire, with the children crying, the rain beating down upon them, and the grim spectacle of a. burning home before them. Neighbours came to the assistance ,*of the family, who were gijven shelter for the night, just as they had been when the home was destroyed sixteen months before. They came to New Zealand from the Old Country a little more than three years ago. They started business in Lincoln Road, and were doing well; then the fire came and destroyed everything. The fact that the furniture was not insured meant a big loss to them.

This morning’s fire has been a further setback. “It .knocks the heart oqt of a'man,” Anderson said to-day. “I’ve had bad luck, but you don’t know ,liOsv thankful we are to have got out of it alive. I thought the same in February last, but this morning we had a narrower ’escape. It’s a wonder we were not burnt in trying to, get out of the There were (lames everywhere, burning wood falling in our path, and we could not see. ” Owned by Thos. Thompson, pastrycook, the property, . which consisted of two shops divided by a wooden partition, was insured for £lOOO. Ander T son occupied one of the shops and slept on the premises. Edward Nelson occupied the . other, carrying, on a confectionery business there. He did not live on the place, however. Anderson’s stock, plant a,nd furniture were insured for £5OO.

, He retired, at ten o’clock last night, and before doing so lie made sure the fire that had. been burning in the kifehen was quite extinguished. He says that at 6.30, when Nelsons locked up their shop and went home, there was no fire in the grate-then. There have been lour fires-on the property within* a period of several years. Fire-blackened timbers and a thick .carpet of charcoal are all that remain of' the shops to-day. Seated on the remnants of a chair, Anderson was found there, this, morning.. He could offer no explanation for the fire. Its origin -is a mystery just as it had been in February last. It appeared thjit the outbreak had started on Nelson’s side. “I am glad th 6 wife and babies are safe,” Anderson said. “We’ve been unlucky, but we’ve been very |liicky too. If I had not wakened up when I did, or if we had been two miputes later, we would have been done.’’