THE "ORIENTAL" FIRE. Touching That Verdict.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 75, 7 December 1901, Page 8

THE "ORIENTAL" FIRE. Touching That Verdict.

THE inquest into the circumstances under which Mr W I. Crawford came by his death was not confined to that simple and easily-answered question Coroner and jury ranged over the entire field of the fire The result is contained in a verdict which, for length and number of riders, just about breaks the record. It is also remarkable for other reasons. In the first place, the jury is perfectly cocksure on a point which is incapable of positive proof After pronouncing Mr Crawfords death to have been "accidental" (which is a slipshod mode of expression that may be pardoned in a coroner's jury), it proceeds to the wholly unnecessary, and purely gratuitous, deliverance that had Mr Crawford "taken immediate action at the first alarm he could have escaped m like manner with Mr Chisholm without injury '' * • • How very easy it is for a parcel of staid and stolid citizens, none of whom, perhaps, has evei experienced the terrors of a nocturnal fire to discuss the situation m cold blood, and as cold-bloodedly impute blame to a dead man. All the evidence goes to show that the fire had a strong hold when discovered That it spread with amazing rapidity That many of the inmates, even those who had been boarders for some time, were in a state of the greatest panic. That some, in their terror, hurled themselves out of the windows That the passages in the hotel were narrow and tortuous, and the staircases difficult to find * • « Mr Chisholm, who was Crawfords room-mate, swore that Crawford followed him out of the bedroom, carrying an armful of clothes The place was in. darkness, and glass was crashing and falling round Crawford had only slept one night previously on the premises. Is it not, then, the most likely thing m the woild that he might lose his way' As Inspector Pender said, m evidence, "People lost their heads at fires '' And Seigeant Cruickshank told the jury m his opinion Crawford missed the staircase on escaping from his room, and had wandeied on round the passages It squares with the ascertained facts. At any rate. Arthur Law has sworn that Crawford arrived at his room shoi'tly after the night porter, that he "was then badly burned about the face, and that he became, unconscious but came to again * • * The jury would have done better to have expressed some opinion about the neglect of duty shown by the Licensing Bench It is the primary function of that body to insist and see that all reasonable provision is

made for the safety of the public in the hotels to which they grant licenses. In the case of the "Oriental" and other hotels they do not seem to have bothered their heads about the matter at all And yet Superintendent Hugo had reported m March, 1900, that "the Oriental Hotel was a very dangerous place to live in," and that report must have been known to them, as it was to the press * • * Then, this very positive juiy also caiefully ignores the evidence that the sixty days notice from the Corporation officials to the owners of the "Oriental to provide improved means of fire escape had been allowed to expire without any action being taken to comply with that notice Why were they not equally outspoken m that matter ? Were they afraid to speak out, or did it escape their notice ? They are not at all backward or mealy-mouthed in finding fault with the City Council. And rightly so The City Fathers slept foi eight months on the ample powers granted them by Parliament for safeguarding hotels and lodginghouses by minimising the risks to life and limb from outbreaks of fire Foi that sloth and inaction there is no excuse * * * But the indolence and culpable neglect of the Corporation do not excuse the happy-go-lucky methods of the Licensing Committee. Nor can they blind the public to the force of the sworn testimony that the owners of the "Oriental" were officially notified on September 4th to provide a pioper means of fire escape (which waa defined for their information), and that the full term of the notice (sixty days) ran out without compliance being made with it Surely, a fact like that was grave enough to merit as much attention from the jury as the circumstances of the rope m Mr Law's room being hidden behind a chest of drawers And a jury that does not scruple to say poor Crawford could have escaped without injury might have plucked up enough courage to offer an opinion about the hotel-owners neglect to furnish those improved means of fire escape they weie expressly directed to provide