Maid Burned To Death In Hotel Blaze

Northern Advocate, 10 February 1940, Page 6

Maid Burned To Death In Hotel Blaze

I [Per Press Association. Cooyright ] WELLINGTON. This Day. A fire fatality occurred early this morning when Miss Kaye Matthews, 20. employed as a housemaid, failed to escape from Hotel Lloyds in Lower Cuba Street. Formerly known as the Columbia Hotel, it is of six stoi'eys and is one of the oldest of the larger hotel buildings in Wellington. The brigade received the alarm at 4.15 a.m. Spread with Terrific Speed. There were 30 or more boarders in the hotel, and few of them had left the building when the brigade arrived. The fire passed from the ground floor to the sixth floor with terrific speed. The consequence was that it mushroomed out in a terrific blaze on the sixth floor, having travelled up a disused “dumb-waiter,” to where Miss Matthews slept alone. Evidently dazed by the fire, she dashed out of the room and made for the narrow, winding strairs. Window Faced Escape. She was turned back before reaching them and ran past her own room to the room beyond, where her body was found after the fire. . A tragic aspect is that the window of her hoom faced directly upon the escape. It was of the connected swing type, not opening fully as does the sash window. Whether this was the cause of her failure to get out that way, however, cannot be known. The brigade saved a large part of the building. Miss Matthews’ parents lived in Wellington.