Old Turakina Landmark Destroyed

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 179, 1 August 1938, Page 7

Old Turakina Landmark Destroyed

BEN NEVIS HOTEL AND SEE VICE STATION Per Press Association. WANGANUI, igfct. One of the oldest land marks on the west coast of the North Island, the Ben Nevis hotel, 14 miles south of Wanganui, was totalled destroyed by lire this morning between four and live o’clock. The old coaching stables attached to the hotel and the nearby service station were also burnt. But for the action of the Marton volunteer lire brigade which travelled 14 miles to the scene, the residenco of the proprietor of the service station would have been destroyed. The brigade connected a suction hose to a nearby stream and saved the dwelling. Mrs. Grace Kenny, of Mosston, Wanganui, who was staying at the hotel, was injured when making her escape and was admitted to the Wanganui hospital. Her condition is fairly serious. DEATH FOLLOWS BURNS Per Press Association. NEW PLYMOUTH, Last Night. Archibald John McArthur, an olderiy tnan who was severely burned in a fire in an old boarding house a week ago, died in hospital to-day. The fire gutted the room in which McArthur was sleeping. He was dragged out with difficulty. He was badly burned on the arm and down one side and has lain in a critical condition for a week. EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO

SAWMILL Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Last Night. Circular saws and planing machinery used in tho manufacture of wooden boxes were badly damaged by a fire which gutted tho sawmill of the Auckland Box Company, Limited, in Dominion road to-day. Fierce flames and dense volumes of smoke which could be Been & long distance away attracted a large crowd of spectators who were interested in the firemen’s work for over an hour. Tho fire, which is believed to have started in a pile of shavings, destroyed a quantity of timber and boxes.

LEAP PROM BURNING HOME WOMAN SUFFERS SERIOUS INJURIES AUCKLAND, July 30. Trapped by a solid wail of flame that blocked all exits from the upper-storey bedroom in which she slept and terrified by flames shooting from windows behind her, Mrs. Annie Elizabeth Maltby, an elderly married woman, jumped from the verandah roof of her home in St. James Square in the city early this morning. She was taken to hospital with serious injuries. Also in hospital are her daughter, Alice Margaret, aged 15, and her son, Walter Albert, aged 18, engineer’s apprentice. Both were injured in escaping from the blazing shell of their wooden fiveroomed house. Five people were asleep in the house when Mrs. Maltby was awakened. She screamed to her husband, who rushed to the front of the house and found the sitting-room filled with a solid sheet of flame. The mother became terrified and jumped, falling on a picket fence. The girl and boy were helped down by their father and e brother, who escaped uninjured. The mother has serious burns and an injured back. Her condition is rather serious. The condition of the two children, w r ho are suffering from burns, L c not serious. The house is a charred shell, except one back room. It is owned by Mrs | P. W. Ockleford and is insured by the Standard Co