THREE LIVES LOST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11538, 24 November 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

THREE LIVES LOST.

FATHER AND TWO SONS KILLED IN A BOROUGH FIRE. A terrible fire, involving the loss of three lives, broke out early in the morning a few days ago at 6, Sturge-street, Southwark Bridge Boad, a house of four rooms. The place was tenanted by two families, Mr. and Mrs. Poultcr, the owners, with four children, in the two back rooms, and Mr. and Mrs. Dawson, lodgers, with three children, in the front. Mr. Dawson, interviewed by a reporter after the fire, said —" My wife woke me at about a-quarter to three o'clock. I went to the door and the place was all in flames. I snatched the children from the bed and opened the window. There were some neighbours standing there holding a blanket, and I dropped them and they were caught. Then the landlady, Mrs. Poulter, came in and said, ' Oh, save my Maggie.' She had a child in her arms. I snatched it from her and threw it after the other children, and it was caught too. She rushed back for the other children and I was going to follow her, but the wife clung to me, and then I flung her from the window into the blankets. The flames were then in the room, and I threw myself out, and had my fall broken by the blankets." The headquarters of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade were near by, and the firemen instantly turned out, instead of waiting for the horses, running the "horsed escape" out by hand. Although only a few seconds elapsed between the raising of the first alarm and the arrival of the men, who were in their stockings, the place was already a mass of flames. Three firemen made desperate efforts to get inside, but were baffled again and again. There was nothing for it but to put the fire out before searching for the Poulters. This was done in a few minutes, and the moment it was possible to enter the place the firemen dashed in. They found the remains of the father, George Poulter, at the head of the bedstead in a kneeling position. The remains of his two sons, Charles and William, aged 8 and 5, were near the bed. At the inquest, Commander Wells deposed that Poulter was burned, from the position of the bodies, in the brave endeavour to save the children. The wife: " Oh, George! Then you died for them!" The little ones were suffocated. Poulter was burned with hie arms actually around one of the boys, kneeling by their bedside. Dawson must have behaved with great presence of mind and promptitude. Had he looked to himself first and jumped there would have been an awful calamity. The coroner expressed the opinion that everybody concerned had behaved with gallantry in endeavouring to save the lives, and the jury returned a verdict of accidental death.