BURNED TO DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15613, 20 May 1914, Page 10

BURNED TO DEATH.

'■;■■■;»■.' » . — ;.v'' THE WELLINGTON TRAGEDY. NO' BLAME ATTRIBUTED. ; [BY TELEOR.U'B.—Own; c6nRB3I?ONDI!NT.] ! ':• Wei-uxotok, Tuesday. j A \TSRWCT of accidental; death was .returned at tho inquest on the two victims | of the fire which' occurred at,the Manchester Private Hotel on Sunday morning. The; hotel was not a, very ; ; pretentions ,building,: of brick, ''. three btoriea high. Its ! narrow, front faced Courtenay ;Place,;;■.■ the I western side ,was a solid brick wall, and tin? eastern faced upon a largo open'yard. |Its shape and the high' southerly wind blowing made tho fire all the. more fierce. The fire apparently broke out in the. kitchen, at the back end of the .ground floor j during the night. The : windows' were j opened to afford" means of escape,'and. quiteprobably the immediate rush of fire up the back stairs and along the narrow hall was what caused the death of the two victims. Their- room was between the passage and the solid brick wall, and was a tiny .chamber without a window., They had evidently been unable to get out against the torrent of hot smoke, and had been;; smothered, dying where they fell. v ,

The fir© escapes were responsible for several persons being injured. At the level of each floor there is ft small platform, at the front and the rear and on the eastern side ;: but they-are not continuous with each other. From the front platforms vertical ladder leads down, with a sliding extension designed to reach the ground and held up by.catches. Thece are made so as to be roleased by moving a lever, but the device did not work. It was found afterwilds that it was out of action, owing to the two parts of the ladder being tied together with a bit of small Tope.; Those who came by this routo had in consequence to | drop several feet to the footpath. \ ;

: A number of, the people took the escape nearest them—that at tho rear, on the first floor. The rear one was out of the question, because flames cut off access to it. And when they wore out on the platform, they.found no means of descending. They nuriiodly got sheets and blankets, and made hasty ropes, down ;■ which they scrambled. -Andrew Regan, a heavy man, with a handicap of v having only one leg, w.is too great a weight, and the cloth carried away. He fell heavily, and his back was badly hurt. Mary Higginson aUoi fell whil.i getting oyer the rail, and j" broke soveral ribs. The rest managed, to get dowrf without' much harm, either by '■: the bedclothes or by ladders, which were brought in time by the firemen. j It was not untli I the fire was put out—perhaps half an hour

after the arrival of the brigade—that its fatal issue was discovered. mi

At the inquest to-day tho coroner stated lat the fire escapes were sufficient and lat no blame was attachable to anyone in jnnectiori with the fire. -

•h The dead woman has been definitely identified as Susannah Ackermann, who has been from: her husband for some years. The man's body has not yet been identified. -. v