TRAPPED BY FIRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 July 1932, Page 4

TRAPPED BY FIRE

RESCUE BY STRANGER. LIVERPOOL, June 4. An unknown man, wearing a wet mackintosh, and with his face covered, made a heroic rescue at a fire which trapped six persons in Tithebarn Street; early this morning.

In a small house over' a newspaper shop three brothers and three sisters were asleep in two top bedrooms. They were Thomas Thornton, aged 34, a licensed porter, and his brothers and sisters —Michael 13, William 10, ■Josephine 23, Betty 18, and Frances 16. When fire broke out on the ground floor the family found themselves cut off. Thomas called oil. them to follow him down the stairs and take a chance, but when they saw him dive •into the smoke and disappear through a curtain of flame, they were afraid to follow. Describing the rescue of ohe of the children, Josephine, the “little mother of the family,” said: “I knew we were trapped and while we waited for rescuers we could feel our arms and bodies being s&or'ched. Then a marvellous thing happened; a man with a wet mackintosh on and his face covered came out of the flames and grabbed the first child he could, and disappeared. It was little Michael. He was a brave man, and I am sorry he did not come back for our thanks.” A few minutes later, the fire brigade arrived, and Betty, Frances and William were carried down the escane. Josephine was the last to be brought down.