TRAPPED BY THE FLAMES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18319, 8 February 1923, Page 6

TRAPPED BY THE FLAMES.

TWO VICTIMS OF FIRE.

OLD - MAN AND LITTLE GIRL [BY ' TELEGRAPH.— association.] # J I NELSON. Wednesday. In connection with the Ligar Bay fire tragedy, details show that the outbreak occurred at daylight, not during the night. Thomas Organ lit a fire in the kitchen' stove, and went out to • milk shortly after six in the morning. A howling gale was blowing at the time. While in the cowshed, 70 yards away, a . quarter of an hour after, Mr. i Organ noticed the house in flames. He rushed home, , too late to save the two victims. Mr. John Gillyard, aged. 70, and a six-year-old daughter of Mr. Organ's slept in a room downstairs adjoining the kitchen. Mrs. Organ and two younger children were also downstairs, but furtTier away. ' ' 1 . Mrs. Organ got out with the two infants, and made for a side window of th© room where Gillyard and the oldest girl slept. Gillyard came to the window, exclaimed, 1 "Oh, my God!" and went back into the room. This was the last aeen of him alive. . The bodies of Gillyard and the • girl were found together, charred to' cinders. The old man, evidently dazed, had endeavoured to rescue f the girl, but; both succumbed to the flames. ' The building was over 40 years old, arid very dry. The gale had blown live embers into the room, and the whole place was ablaze in a . few minutes. ; Gillyard cam© originally from the Went Coast. Organ is . a returned soldier. , v j