FATAL FIRE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 3238, 4 December 1930, Page 5

FATAL FIRE

WOMAN LOSES HER LIFE. MAN SERIOUSLY INJURED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Wellington, htis day. Caught by flames, which were sweeping through a burning building at Oriental Bay shortly after midnight, two people made a desperate attempt to escape. One failed and was burned to death. She was Mrs. Ellen George Watson, owner of the building in Hay Street. A boarder, Mr. Walter Gray, a married man, aged 40, _ who was unable to descend the stairway, leaped from the third floor and was seriously injured. He was rushed to the hospital where it was seen that he had received serious injuries and bruises. The injuries are thought to. consist of a skull fracture and fractured ribs. The building was a wooden one consisting of two storeys and a basement. It had become enveloped in flames when a woman in the hoiise smelt the smoke and gave the alarm. The fire had originated in the first storey and mounted rapidly to the floors above, cutting off the escape of the two unfortunate people. Mrs. Watson’s room was just above the seat of the fire. Apparently she was aroused when the alarm was first given and attempted to make her way out by the rear stairway, but evidently lost her way in the darkness and snwke and stumbled into the bathroom where the charred body was found.