TRAPPED BY FIRE

Hawera Star, Volume L, 25 September 1930, Page 9

TRAPPED BY FIRE

CAR BURSTS INTO FLAMES

MAORI ESCAPES DEATH

THROUGH A DRAIN PIPE.

Trapped at the foot of a steep embankment by a wall of fig©. a Maori, named Hawe escaped the possibility of a tragic fate yesterday -afternoon when he dived into a three-foot drainage pipe and, battling against a flowing stream of water for some 22 yards, emerged at the other end little the worse for nis unenviable and, in some respects, laughable, predicament. Hawe was driving his motor car from Okaiawa to his farm on Kokoriri Road and when turning the second bend on the Manaia side of the factory at Okaiawa, discovered that his steering gear had locked. Fortunately his speed was not great and he managed to stop. Ha wo decided to leave the cai' at the factory until it could be attended to, and wi»h assistance turned the vehicle round until v it was again facing towards Okaiawa \_He climbed into his seat and * carted to steer the car carefully down the li’ll but had not gone far when it veucd across the road towards a steip embankment at the foot of which ran a small stream. Hawe was powerbss to stop the runaway car. and the vehicle went over the edge, crashing tnrough masses of fern and: blackberry to tiie water’s edge. Hawe managed to free himself in time, but was thrown hoamiy into the water, the car coming to n-st a short distance away with its when's in the air. The machine burst into flames and burned, fiercely, a large quantity of benzine escaping and spreading in a seething mass across toe water. By the time Hawe had picked himself ini and had taken stock < t his bruises, the whole embankment and the stream in front of him were in Mair.es. The unfortunate man was quick to notice that the flow of water was from the embankment and 1 realising that there would be a concrete drain pipe under tlie road to the watercourse on the other side, he took the chance and plunged head first into the opening. Meanwhile the alarm had: been given at the factory and the employees there rushed to give assistance. Fearing that the Maori had been trapped’ under the car they procured water from the other side of the road and kept that part of the fern saturated in order to check the spread ol the flames. While one of the men was filling his bucket he was surprised to i see a dripping figure emerge from toe to the tmmel. Hawe lost no time in assuring the men that he was still alive and that that was more imrortant than the fate of the car. _ Had he been pinned beneath the chassis toe men would have had! no chance oT <-avin<7 hinn. for the ear hurst into flames, which, fed bv the petrol, quickly lit the fem and rubbish, until the whole din was a mass’ of fire. The Hawera police were called to tlie iscene of the accident hut their services were not required when it was ascertained that Hawe had escaped with minor bruises.