THE WYNDHAM-STEEET FIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12303, 22 June 1903, Page 6

THE WYNDHAM-STEEET FIRE.

■*» ■ INQUEST ON THE VICTIMS. 1 INCOMPLETE FIRE ALARM BOXES A HINT TO THE TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT. The inquest en the bodies of the three menWalter Spoakinan, Marko Markovitch, an< Te Jvepa YVeropupu— were found deac at the Shakespeare Boardingbouse, Wynd I ham-street, after the disastrous fire wbic! occurred there during the early hours of Fri day morning, was held at the Criterion Hote on Saturday by Mr. Gresham, coroner. Sergeant 'geant Hendry represented the police. Mr John McMahon was chosen foreman of the ' jury. j MEDICAL EVIDENCE, j Dr. Sharman, who was the first witness ' stated that ho was called to the tiro at about twenty minutes past three on Friday morning, ; Ho had since seen the three bodies lying in . the morgue. There was nothing in the appearance -of them to indicate anything in the nature of foul play. Death was apparently due to misadventure. Two of the menthe Maori half-caste Ken a and the English gumdigger Speakman, were suffocated, their burns . being insufficient to have caused immediate j death. The third man — remains were I go charred as to render identification imposi siblemight have been suffocated on the j stairs before the flames reached him. It was, j however, impossible to state that such was j the case. i The evidence of Dr. Sharman having been i taken, and the doctor liberated from iurthor I attendance aft the inquiry, the coroner and j jury paid a visit to the scene of the fire. A j careful examination was made of the upper ! floors, to which the conflagration was, in the main, restricted. This done the party returned to the Criterion Hotel and the inquest was resumed. SUPERINTENDENT WOOLLEy'3 EVIDENCE. Superintendent Woolley, of the Auckland Fire Brigade, stated that the alarm was received at ten minutes to three on Friday morning from the box at the corner of Queen and Wyndham Streets. The brigade at once turned out with a reel, the laddi'i truck, and telescopic ladder. Within four minutes of the call they wero at the fire. Upon arrival they found a number of police constables and civilians on the permanent fire escapes engaged in rescuing the inmates of the boardinghouse. He was informed that there were two men in one of the bedrooms, and ordered Firemen Moore and Ashor to go up the fire escape and render assistance. This done, he broke the window in the billiarclroom, and, followed by fircmon, entered the building. Their object was, if possible, to reach some of the top rooms by the staircase. On reaching the first iioor, however, the heat was found to be so intense that further progress was impossible. No one could have been still alive in such a heat. He then got to work with the hose, so as to prevent the fire from spreading. There was nothing, so far as he could see, to suggest any other than an accidental cause foi the fire. All the inmates, with the exception of the men whose death formed the subject of the present inquiry, had been rescued before the brigade reached the fire. After they had got to work with the hose he mounted, by means of the lire brigade ladders to the third storey balcony in the front of the building, and looking through the window of the room nearest to Albert-street, he saw two bodies lying. They were the Maori Te Kepa and the Englishman Speakman, and from their appearance he considered they had been suffocated. Everything possible was done by the brigade, the police, and trie civilians, who rendered assistance. Had there not been a permanent fire escape fixed on the outside of the building the loss of life would have been much greater, as none of the occupantstif the upper rooms could have descended by the staircase. To the Foreman: The bedroom in which the bodies of the Maori and Speakman were found was a small one, and the door was shut. It was filled with smoke that had found its way through the crevices. There was no doubt that they were suffocated. The window of the room was intact. In hi 3 opinion the fire originated in a back room, on the same floor as the compartment the bodies were found in. The Foreman: Do you think that the fire escapes were sufficient for the number of boarders, judging from the number of beds thflt the house contained? Witness: The beds were not all occupied. I consu'or that the fire escape was sufficient for the number of boarders likely to be in the house at one time. To Sergeant Hendry: He did not see the proprietor Lukich. Several persons who wore rescued from the front rooms had, he understood., been taken to the Herald Office. To a Juror: He did not think the attic in which nine beds had been counted, was fit to be used as a sleeping compartment. HOW THE FIRE WAS DISCOVERED. James Francis Lowry, compositor, stated that he loft the Herald Office at a quarter to three o'clock on the morning of the fire, and :amp into Wyndham-street, passing the nightwatchman. When abreast of the Shakespeare Boardinghouse—about 100 yds further up the street than the Herald Buildings—he noticed a reddish glare through the fanlight over the door of the ground floor entrance. Smoke was also issuing from the top of the building. It immediately occurred to him that the house was on fire, and he asiccd Mr. James McVeagh. a fellow compositor, with whom he was walking, to get to the fire alarm as quickly as possible, whilst ho proceeded to arouse the inmates. There was no one about at the time with the exception of members of the Herald staff. Mr. MeVeagh ran up , the street shouting "Fire," and broke the jlas3 of the a'arro at the corner of Albert-street and Durham-street, and touched the button, with a view to rousing the brigade, but, unfortunately, there was no connecting wire ivith the fire station.

UNCOMPLETED ALARMS. The Coroner here remarked that his attention had been called to the fact that in Al-bert-street and other thoroughfares there wero dummy alarms.' Their presence was an inducement when a fire occurred to endeavour to communicate through them with the fire brigade, but they did not communicate with anything. Sir. Lowry: This is the second time this week that these alarms have proved unsatisfactory. The Coroner remarked that the matter had already been called attention to in the press, and he hoped the Telegraph Department would take notice of it. PRAISE WHERE PRAISE IS DUE.

Resuming his story of the fire, Mr. Lowry told how, by means of the fire escape, he helped to rescue two women and a child from tiia first floor. Constables Mclvor and Sims . afterwards came up and succeeded in rescuing two women from the upper storey. The Coronor: Do you know how many persons wero saved? Witness: I. believe, in all, about eight. Sergeant Hendry: I think it only right that praise should bo given where praise is due, and it is only fair to say that had it not : been for the coolness and presence of mind shown by Mr. Lowry the loss of life. would have been a good deal more. Mr. liOwry: I don't want to be given too much credit for what was done. The police acted splendidly. Sergeant Hendry: You were undoubtedly responsible for the saving of the lives of these people. Had you not discovered the fire when you did, or if you had not giver the alarm so promptly, anything might have happened. Mr. Lowry said ho desired to emphasise Die fact that if the alarm at the corner of Durham and Albert Streets had been in communication with the five station the brigade could havo reached the fire foui oi five minutes oarlior than was actually the case. Time was lost by going clown Queen-street and having to turn the sharp corner at the foot of Wyndham-street. to say nothing of the climb up the hill. Had the alarm been given from Albert-street the brigade would have come down Hobson-street, a shorter route, and down bill. Minutes were everything at such a time. By means of artificial respiration the two men who were suffocated might have been restored had they been got out of the building, earlier. The defective alarms wore not merely dummies, they wore positively snares. To a Juror: Constables Mclvor and Sims, who rescued the two women from the second floor, attempted to got into the room where the men lay, but wero driven back by the smoke and steam. IDENTIFICATION OF THE BODIES. Hapi Haterete, whose evidence was interpreted from Maori into English by Mr. Brown, identified the body of the dead Maori as that of Te Kopa, a relative. 1i Kepa was a man of about 5.. years of age, a widower, who worked as a gumdigger. His father was a laiigatira, named Tehe, and his mother was a S.-irrioan. Tli'i'iifi- Charles Toy, jtoreman, identified the 'oiiy of tin English boarder a Walter Speakman, a gumdigger, newly arrived in

Auckland from Vvnangarei. opeakman, * whom he had known for about a month, was a single man of middle age. He came to the colony from London 19 years ago, and hac paid several visits to the Old Country. Nicholas Lukich, licensee of the Shakespeare Boardingbouse, stated that he had had the house for eleven months. It contained 15 bedrooms, and on busy times, as at Christmas, he had accommodated as many as 45 . boarders. No particular number of boarders was specified in the license. Marko Markovitch, a native of Austria, aged 52, had been at the house for some time. He used to do odd jobs about the place. There could be no doubt the charred and unrecognisable body now in the morgue was that of Marko, • as his clothes were found in the bedroom he had occupied over night. Including a • stranger, who came out of the top room, ' | where the women were, and whose presence ; in the house had not b?en known until the ' discovery of the fire, there were eleven occupants. i " The Coroner said the City Council, when they issued a license to a bcardinghouse- ; keeper, apparently did not care whether he accommodated 15 or 50 boarders. A Juror: At one time they had an inspector going round. SUGGESTIONS AS TO THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE A Juror: When the boarders retire for the night have they gas or do they use candles? ! Witness: There is no gas provided in the ; upper storeys. A Juror: Do you know whether Marko was in the habit of reading by candle-light? Sergeant Hendry, interupting, said Marko was an eccentric man, who went from room to room, never occupying the same compartment for long. The Juror: Just so. What crossed my mind was, that the man might have taken a lighted candle to a room with him, afterwards leaving that room for another without taking the* candle with him. Sergeant Henary: That is not impossible, as an explanation. Another suggestion is that the strange man, whoever he was, may have struck a match and thrown it down. ! Witness, in reply to a question from the coroner, said he paid £150 for the goodwill of the house. He was the last to retire on the night of the fire. The street door was always left unfastened so that boarders could j enter at any time. SUMMING UP AND VERDICT. Sergeant Hendry said this was all the evidence he could bring forward. Of the man who came out of the women's room nothing could bo learned. Constables Mclvor and Sims did all in their power to save the Maori and Speakman, as well as rendering valuable assistance in getting the two women from the top room out of danger. As soon as the fire was discovered Dr. Sharman was fetched, and the ambulance was sent ior. Everything possible was done to save life. The Coroner, in summing up, said there was no doubt that everything that could be done to save life was done. The jury were unable to say how the fire, which resulted in three deaths, originated. There seemed to be no I reason to suppose that it was the work of an I incendiary; all the surroundings pointed the other way. From the fact that the downstairs door was always left unfastened it looked as if anybody could get in and go upstairs. The conduct of the police, the brigade, and the civilians by whom they were assisted, had been admirable. But for the zeal and skill displayed all round the loss of life would almost certainly have been greater. A Juror: Can we add a rider to our verdict, calling attention to the incomplete state of many of the fire alarm boxes? The Coroner: Publicity will be given in 'he press to what has been said, and I do not think the Telegraph Department will ignore public feeling in the matter. The Foreman: The jury wish to bring under the notice of Inspector Cullen the smartness and ability displayed by Constables Mclvor and Sims, who. gallantly saved the lives of two women. The Coroner said the wishes of the jury in this respect would be given effect to. A verdict was returned showing that the cause of the death of the three men was through the fire, accidental and by misfortune. = ;