HOTEL BLAZE

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1938, Page 5

HOTEL BLAZE

OVER £30,000 DAMAGE. (Australian Press Association.) SYDNEY, September 20. Most of the New Zealand visitors .who stayed at the Wentworth Hotel transferred to other hotels tG-day, congratulating themselves on their lucky escape in last night’s fire. The flames travelled with great rapidity/ along the upper corridors,, igniting carpets, door fromes and ceilings, also catching the wooden staircase, and causing, dense smoke, through which it was impossible to see more than a yard. More than 130 guests were staying/at the hotel, and at least eighty wer© in bed on the upper .floors when the,fire was discovered. The majority lost nearly all of their belongings. The ' damage is estimated at > over thirty thousand pounds, hut, strangely, the external walls of the. hotel which was not a modern one, show little sign of the fire.

The . fire started in a linen closet on the fourth flooT. .r

Mr and Mrs A> Webb, of Christchurch,' escaped unscathed. .Webb said he was in bed when he heard the crackling of flames, and the. room seemed to become suddenly hot.

„n‘‘l called my wife. We both raced, ■towards the door, then the flames spread over our carpet. I grabbed the first clothing I could put my hands on, and we rushed out. All our possessions are missing.”

In response to Mrs Redmond’s pleadings, 11. S. Macey of New Zealand, went up in a lift to the fifth floor, to try to find Wiliam Redmond. "Immediately I opened the lift door, I was met by, a wall of flame. It was an inferno. The wires of the lift were, beginning to burn, so I was forced down,” said Macey. ‘ An examination of the boy Redmond, who leapt to his death, revealed) that he was burned about the body.. His skull was fractured by. his fall. His bedroom was also severely damaged by fire. ' ' v -. A New Zealander, H. Balk, a crack pigeon shot, staying at the hotel, arrived shortly after the outbreak. He was concerned with the recovering of his guns, but the police would not allow him upstairs. He made seyeral attempts to climb the fire escape, but each time was prevented from doing so. However, when a constable was called from his post near the escape* Balk clambered up and secured the guns.

Great damage was done to .the hotel Three floors were burnt out.