PLAYING WITH FIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14224, 22 November 1909, Page 6

PLAYING WITH FIRE.

CHILD DIES FROM BURNS.

An inquest was held at the hospital on Saturday morning on,the body of a two-year-old child named Albert Roy Petrie, who died at the institution on Friday as the result of burns received while playing with a lighted candle. The City Coroner (Mr. T. Gresham) presided.

Albert Ernest Petrie, the father of the child, explained that on Thursday evening his two children, the deceased and a little girl aged four, were put to bed as usual and a lighted candle left in the room. Twenty minutes later his wife had occasion to go into, the bedroom, and found the little girl fast asleep, but the boy still awake. Five minutes later witness and his wife were startled by hearing screams coming from the children's bedroom, and on rushing into the room they found the little fellow out of bed with his flannelette nightdress on fire. The boy had evidently been playing with the candle and his nightdress had caught alight. The child, after receiving medical attention, was taken to the hospital, where ho died from shock the following morning. „ ....... . : , The Coroner described the practice of leaving a lighted candle in a children's bedroom as an exceedingly dangerous one, as children were apt to play with it. He also thought that flannelette nightdresses for children should be . dispensed with. A new material, which was noninflammable, had been introduced at Home, and was being largely used. It had not yet, so far as he was aware, been brought out here, but when it was he hoped that it would be used in place of the present dangerous material. The jury returned, a verdict of accidental death, no blame- being attachable to anyone. . : . > .>