SENSATIONAL FIRE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1189, 11 December 1924, Page 5

SENSATIONAL FIRE.

810 BLAZE IN AUCKLAND. NARROW ESCAPES FROM DEATH. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Dec. 10. A hoarding houeo at Ponsoiiby was destroyed by lire under sensational circumstances early this morning. The house was a three-storeyed wooden building with numerous little windows and turrets. U] c proprietor of the establishment was Mr Peddio, who, with liis wife, and several occupants, slept on the ground lloor. The rest, of the boarders occupied rooms on the second and third floors, there being twenty upartincuts altogether. RACE. FOR LIFE. About 1.15, Edward McGuinoss, who occupied a room adjacent to the kitchen, was awakened by stilltng fumes and amoke in his bedroom. Staggering to the door, he discovered a mass of flames in the kitchen. The next moment- he was rushing from room to room shouting ‘'lire” and shaking sleeping occupants into consciousness, but so firm a hold had the flames that they licked out- of tho kitchen and up the stairs before the whole Household had been awakened. Those on the ground and tho first and second floors quickly snatched overcoats or wraps, and then had to run downstairs for their lives. By the time people on the lop floor were roused there was hut one way of escape for them, and that was by a ladder down the side of the house. There were four young women and three young men in the rooms there. Time was so short that one mail had only time to throw a pair of trousers out of the window. The women were quickly assisted to the lire escape, but the shock was so severe that one of them fainted, and had to he carried down the ladder. So quickly did the lire spread throughout the house that before the last, inuu liud climbed down to safety the ladder was beginning to burn, but everybody had got out of the building, which, it was easy to see, was doomed. A strong breeze from the eca fanned the flames, which roared furiously as they consumed the dry timber, furnishings anil bedding, and all the personal belongings of the men, women and children who were standing shivering and fearful in the street. GIVING THE ALARM. Once everyone was clear of the house, Johnston, one of the boarders, raced up to Ponsonby Post Office, where he rang tho lire alarm. However, u lady boarder. Miss Brown, recollected that there was actually a lire alarm in tho street, and she hurried to it, getting her call in leu seconds ahead of tjohm-don. The brigade was summoned exactly twelve minutes after MeGuiness had discovered the outbreak. Even in the short space of twelve minutes, however, the lire hail made tremendous progress, and the houses on each side of the hoarding house wan well alight. Borne of the men rushed to neighbours and gave the alarm. OTHER OUTBREAKS. In No. 6, Waitemala street, lived Albert Crow, his wife, his inolhcr-in-huv, and a niece. Their bedrooms faced the lire, and the* windows were cracking and the woodwork burning when they jumped out of bed. There was hut little time to put on a few clothes before tho house was well alight. However, several articles of furniture were carried out of the dining room before it was impossible to slay near the house. The motor garage went up in smoke in a few minutes, but by good luck the car was not there.

The other house which was burning was a new bungalow in the last stages ol completion. Rolls of wallpaper were lying in one of the rooms, and the place would coon have been ready for occupation. '1 he lire destroyed • practically the whole house, although the portion .further from the hoarding nouse was not completely burned, and the roof held.

Neighbours were roused by the shivering hoarders thundering at their doors. The occupants of Merivale, a good-sized house exactly opposite the partially-built bungalow. were alarmed by a woman's screams and the beating- of lists on their front door. Mr and Mrs L. Blythe and Mrs Nelson, who occupied the house, hurried to the door. (.In opening it they found a woman lying on the verandah in a dead faint. They carried her indoors and placed her in safety.