The Willis Street Fire. How the Inmates Fared. Some Personal Experiences.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 74, 30 November 1901, Page 20

The Willis Street Fire. How the Inmates Fared. Some Personal Experiences.

QUTTK a large and \ aned oast ot professional entertainers were m the Oriental '' on the night of the file, and they are all free to oonfess it was by far the most sensational performance of which they ha\ c had any experience. Th° rapidity with which the flames gained the mastery, and the hairbreadth escapes of so many of the inmates oau«^ one to shudder as he recals the scenes Just what would have happened if Conn Buckingham, the well-known cornet player and Ins friend, Ned Monckton had not taken it into their heads to sit on chatting an their bedroom into the "we sma' hoors ayont. the twal," is really too awful to contemplate. They lost no time in sounding a peieinptor\ alaim through the doomed buildi.." end even then it was "cut and run" with the most of the inmates. The night watchman Burrows), must have saved many lives by the remarkable devotion to duty and disregard of danger which he showed m going through the hotel and arousing the various lodgers. * * • Mr Packer must have been one of the very first to respond Seems he had made up his mind pi eviousJy to stay no longei at the Oriental — vague ideas of fire had crossed his mind before. After getting his daughter — Miss Beryl Gilman the loung variety artist.' out of harm\ way. lie returned to the burning hotel, and did his best to help out the others. Mjra Thompson (of the Empire Specialty Company) in scanty attire, went down the rope from one of the second floor windows,. Ida Clarkson slept on the top floor, and must have made her exit by the rope, which was the chief means of exit for the people on that. flat. They landed on a heap of broken bottles and as nearly all the female escapees and most of the males were in the habiliments of night, they got pitiably cut and lacerated about feet, legs, hands and aa-ms t • • One distracted housemaid, missing the rope jumped wildly out into space, and oame an awful crash among those brok en bottles. How she escaped with her life is a mystery. Johnny Collins, the burnt-cork artist, slept on the first floor next to the bath-room (where there is a fire escape), and probably he found it. Frank Lewis, who. as a good shorthand writer aud typist, was employed as an amanuensis on Hansard" last session, had very hard luck. He was> the last to le.ave the top floor, waiting till the last of the fair sev had made her exit by the rope, and he himself got away merely in hie pyjamas^ — everything he owned in the world, including all the money he had earned, being s.wept up by the flames. Jack Lindon. Bijou artist, was also a top-floorpr Aubrey Douglas jumped out from a book window, but fared better than Jack D'Arcv. who made a similar experiment. • • • Levn^e\ the electric-light man of the Ada Delroy Company, had an escape from serious hurt which is quite marvellous He opened his bedroom door to find his retreat m that direction barred by the flames He snatched up his poitmajiteau and bashed out the window frame with it Then he got out and proceeded to descend while still hanging on to that boloved port-sammy He touched some red-hot iron with hi« hands, let go and fell but' — here is the strange part — -the port-sammy struck terra firm a first and Lewsey fell on it, and sa^ ed his bone 4 - perhaps his life. Mr Abrams. the pianist, of the Ada Delro\ Company , mourns a pet cockatoo, w Inch perished m his room He himself was with Mr. James Bell, at the lattei's lodgings playing a friendly game of cards when the firebells rang out. They ruslied out at once, making straight for the Oriental, where young Charlie Bell was staying, and they were horrified to find that he had either fallen or jumped down the stairway from the top floor, and was severely injured and unconscious. Young Mr. Bell has been lying at the Hospital in a state of unconsciousness ever since the fire, and his life is trembling in the balance even as we write Mr. William I. Crawford, a well-known and popular resident of Mas te>rton. was so severely burned in effecting his escape that he succumbed to his injuries on Monday afternoon, twelve hours after his admission to the Hospital 1 • • • A number of 'bookies" were staying at the Oriental, and they seem to have been among the very few who woke quickly and dressed promptly, keeping 000 l all the time. Arthur Law, once a tram conductor in Wellington, and now a pen ciller of considerable means, stopped to help out some of the

tnghtened women-folk, and, although he saved his "book"and a favourite terrier, the rest of hie belongings went up in smoke His tailor will be interested to hear the rumour that he lost eight suits of clothes. How one of them would have been prized in the chilly aii by the particular waiter, who — like President Steyn, of the Orange Free Statemade his escape in his nightshirt. Some of the terrified people, after jumping ou to the broken bottles, clambered up the wall-like face of the cliff at the back up to Bouloott-street How they did it is a wonder — at any rate their bleeding feet left a trail of blood behind, • • • One hears all kuid of distressing stories about the pecuniary losses resulting from this terribly swift fire. Mr. D C McN* aught working jeweller for instance is a heavy sufrerer — praeticallv ruined His insurance ran out in September and had not been lenewed, and his landiadv broke the news ot the fire to him .it breakfabt tune on Monday morning That day people were poking about vi till sticks helping him to rero\< j [ the poor remains of his stock — fighting on a precious stone here and there and turning up the fused fragments of valuable Jewell enMr William Isaac Crawtord. ot Masterton, who died at- the Hospital on Monda\ from injuries received at the Oriental" fire was a man of liberal education, much talent, and genial happy disposition He was born at SUgo, of which city his lather was an alderman and he completed his studies at Trinity College Dublin He went out to Australia and in New South Wales and Queensland devoted himself to the scholastic piofession. besides contributing freely to the Bulletin" and othei journals * * * Both m the Old Country and in Australia as well, he figured prominently in athletics and only last week he mentioned in the Lance the fact that about 1890 he played m the New South Wales representative football team against the New Zealand Natives He was paying a tribute to the memory of poor Bill Warbrick bttle did he reck that next wjup of the Lance would contain his own obituary After some years, he came on to New Zealand, with his wife, and. about two years ago. settled down at Masterton, where he established a grammar school, and, more recently, devoted himself to coaching" pupils for examinations and teaching shorthand • • « Mi. Craw tord was a contubutor ot ■ Wairarapa Jottings" to the Lance from its birth He was a fluent and graceful writer, possessed a full share of the quick wit and breezy good-natured humour ot his countrymen and was full ot generous impulses. At Masterton he was alw-avs foremost m lending a willing hand at entertainments for social 01 charitable objects. He leaves behind him «i wife and tw o voting children slenderly piovided for. Mrs. Crawford has won more than a local reputation as a skiltul miniature painter and as Miss Somers was well-known before her marnage both m Wellington and Auckland for her portrait painting Mr Crawford lias been cut off in the prime ot life He was ju*t thirtt-^ix veai* of age