TRAGIC FIRE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 18 June 1932, Page 8

TRAGIC FIRE

YOUNG BOY’S DEATH IN FLAMES UNEMPLOYED FAMILY further details As reported yesterday tragedy and disaster fell upon the home of Edward King, a relief worker, at 29 Gardiner’s road llarowood, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Ilis eldest son, Raymond, aged eight years, was burned to death, his home razed and all his frugal worldly possessions destroyed. Mr King was away at the Waimakariri River Trust’s camp at M’Lcan’s Island when the tragedy occurred (reports the “Times”). From there he was brought in by car at 3 a.m. and found his home a pile of smouldering ashes and his wife l and the three children who had been saved sheltering with neighbours. /All that is left to the family is the night attire in which Mrs King and her children escaped, and some clothing that was hanging on a line at the back of the house. _ Alone with her children, Mrs King was called on to face a terrible ordeal. Her cries for help roused her neighbours and with their aid she was able to save three of her children. The boy Raymond perished in liis mother s bedroom, where, it appears, he had gone to look for her. The children who were rescued were David, aged six, and Burnice and Jean, twin sisters, aged three. Mi's King saved the girl Jean by plucking her out of her burning cot. Jean was sleeping in a bedroom in the right-front of the house and the boys in a bedroom opposite. Mrs King and Burnice were sleeping in a room at the side of the house behind that occupied by the boys. A passage led down the centre of the house separating the rooms. An open fire with a fireguard round it was burning in the room occupied by Jean. The body of Raymond was recovered at 3 a.in. 'll was found beside the buckled ironwork of his mother’s bed. Mr King, through being away at the -elifef camn, was saved the experience of witnessing the tragedy. A telephone call was put through to Mr T. Jeal, the [rust’s overseer, and lie readily responded to a request to bring Mr King in from the camp, motoring out for him and restoring him to his stricken family shortily after 3 a.m.

MRS KING’S DRAMATIC STORY It was a pathetically sad as well as a dramatic story that Mrs King had to tell. She had just returned from the hospital, where she had taken David, and was sheltering at a friend’s home. Mrs King explained that Raymond had been ill for some weeks past and had been attended by Dr. Thomson early this week. He was’sleeping in a- room with his brother David. Mrs King had been up once during the night to attend to Raymond, who had complained of being very unwell, and she therefore awoke at once when at some time during the night Jean was heard to scream. '“When I got out .into the passage,” said Mrs Kins. “I could smell fire. I rushed straight into Jean’s room. I will never forget the' sight I saw there. Jean was lying in her heel with the flames rising all around her. I could not get near her froni the side and had to drag her out over the head of the bed. The child never made a sound after the first scream. I took Jean out the back and put her near the pump and then went back to wake Dav:e and Ray. Davie is a very sound sleeper, and I had some trouble in getting him to wake. Ray again said lie was feeling very ill, but he followed me outside. I left him with his brother. Jean had wan-

dered into the house again, and I had to go in and bring her out again. When 1 went to go in the third time to save what things I could, the house was so full of smoke that 1 could not sec my way. 1 then found that Jean had again gone into (he house and I went back to look for her. Ray said: ‘Don’t go in there and get burnt, inuminic.' I could hear Jean calling out and made my way towards her. Ray must have thought that I had gone in for Buniie and followed me in, going into niy room. They tell me it was beside my bed that lie was found.” Mr W r . J. Densem and her husband were the first to go to Mrs King’s aid. Mrs King told them she had saved the girls, lmt the hoys were still inside. Smashing a window Mrs Densem called loudly to the boys by name. Mrs King joined her and both women pitted their voices against the roar and crackle of tile fire that by this time had become an inferno. Minutes, that to the distracted mother and her friend must have seemed like ages, elapsed before David, the younger boy, answered their frantic calls. Fie staggered to the window and Mrs Densem dragged him through. The room was filled with smoke and the flames were just behind him. HEROIC RESCUE EFFORT FAILS It was at this stage that Mr Densem made a valiant, but unsuccessful effort to rescue Raymond With little regard for his own safety, he clambered through a window and faced a fire which in his own words “was roaring and leaping through the house.” He knew that the boy was not in his own room, and had guessed that lie must have gone along the passage to find his mother, believing her to be still in her bedroom. Amidst thick smoke that choked him at every breath and flame that scorched his clothing. Mr Densem' fought. his way along the passage, but was not able to get into the bedroom, which by now was an inferno. “It was then that I saw tile most terrible sight that any man could look upon,” said Mr Densem. “It was a small boy burning to death by his mother’s bedside. In this terrible experience I was powerless.” | Driven back by the heat, flame and smoke, Mr Densem found his way out of the building and in his own words was broken up by the tragedy he had been called on to witness. “The .flames and black, stinking smoke,” said Mr Densem, “did not leave a stick standing. I shall not forget this ghastly night.” BODY RECOVERED Hot ashes and jumbled pieces of iron were all that remained’of the house when Constable Warren, of the Papanui station, arrived on the scene. Nothing could be done by that time except recover the body from the smouldering mass.