YOUTH BRAVES FIRE TO WARN GIRLS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6804, 7 January 1929, Page 4

YOUTH BRAVES FIRE TO WARN GIRLS

DASHES UP FLAMING STAIRS With his clothes alight and his hands burned, Walter Laurie, 18, ■of Martin Street, Coburg, rushed upstairs through choking smoke-fumes to warn 180 girl machinists, when a fire broke out in the office of the Meadows Glass Manufactory, Lonsdale Street, recently. Laurie and another employee, who also went upstairs to divert the girls to the back exit, were driven back by the fumes. Laurie beat out the flames on his burning clothes and made a further attempt to get up the stairs. This time he was successful. Almost choked he managed to gasp a warning to the girls on the first floor and the message was passed on to the floor above. The machinists showed no panic. Each secured her hat and bag and, with remarkable coolness, went down the back stairs to safety. Chemicals Alight Laurie was heating chemicals used in the manufacture of mirrors over a gas jet in the office when he was called to the telephone. The chemicals caught fire, and returning, Laurie attempted to lift the container off the jet. Flames caught his clothing. The room quickly filled with the fumes from the burning chemicals, and office furniture was quickly alight. Laurie then thought of those on the floors above and ran to warn them. He was treated later at Melbourne Hospital for burns and shock, but was back at his work at 9 a.m. Documents Burned Detachments of the fire brigade from headquarters, William Street, and Bouverie Street, comprising 50 men, attended and quickly subdued the fire. The damage was confined to the office on the west wing of the ground floor. Valuable documents, it is believed, were destroyed, but until a complete search is made among the ruins of the office furniture, the damage cannot be assessed. Glass and mirror materials were damaged by water. The flames did not reach the floor above, where large quantities of flimsy cloth were lying. On this floor, occu pied by S. G. Peterson, about SO girl machinists were working. On the floor above—the top storey—were about 100 girls employed by the Standard Manufacturing Company.