BURNED TO DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19217, 5 January 1926, Page 11

BURNED TO DEATH.

FATE OF THREE CHILDREN. TRAPPED IN DWELLING. MOTHER'S TERRIBLE. ORDEAL. Three children suffered a terrible fate when they were burned to death within sight of their parents at Meatian, Victoria, recently. Tho mother made a frantic effort to save them without avail. The three children, Hazel, Dorothy and Thomas Burn, aged four, two and eight respectively. were playing in tho honso about 5 p.m., and their mother left them for a few minutes to call their father, who was harvesting a few hundred yards away. When their mother was on the way back she noticed the house in flames. Screaming to the children frantically, she rush'ed toward the house which was burning fiercely. She made an attempt to rush into the burning: building but was prevented by a farm hand. At that time the houso was practically demolished by the flames. At this moment the father came on the scene and the anguish of the two parents was pitiful. They rushed round and round the house calling their children, stumbling over stones and falling into holes, but apparently oblivious to all injury. It was not until they were utterly exhausted and could not resist that neighbours were able to coax them away. The bodies of tho three children were found huddled together in one of the bedrooms. No traces of the csiuse of the fire could be found, although it is thought that one of the children, playing with matches, had set light to the bedclothes.