FATAL NAPIER FIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19627, 4 May 1927, Page 10

FATAL NAPIER FIRE.

EVIDENCE AT INQTJEST. RAPID SPREAD OF FLAMES, LACK OF FIRE ESCAPES. OCCUPANTS JUMP FROM WINDOWS [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] NAPIER, Tuesday. Before the district coroner, Mr. R. W. Dyer, this afternoon, the inquest was opened into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of William Robison and John Thomas Webber, the two victims of Monday morning's fire at the old Shakespeare Boarding House. Senior-Sergeant Powell conducted the proceedings on behalf of the police. Mary Bruce, wife of the proprietor of the Shakespeare Boarding House, stated that on the night of the fire there were 13 boarders on the books. Webber had been boarding at the house for over two years and was a man about 46 years of ng». Robison had only been a boarder for seven weeks and she understood he came from England. Ou Saturday a fire had been burning in an open fireplace in the sitting room and in the kitchen coal and coke were burned. All the people who slept in the house ou Sunday night wore accounted for except Robison and Webber. Thero were no fire escapes. The Coroner: How many staircases were thero ? Mrs. Bruce: Only one. The Coroner: Then if the staircase was on fire there was no provision for escape I Mrs. Bruce: Only by the windows. Senior-Sergeant Powell: How did those from upstairs escape T Mrs. Bruce: They had to jump from the windows. Mr. Brucs helped one old gentleman out. A Boarder's Statement. Joseph Henry Gillet, platelayer, employed by the Napier Harbour Board* stated that he retired to bed at 8.30 p.m.: on Sunday and _was aroused next morning between 4.30 and 4.36 o'clock by the crackling of the wood burning in the main building. He jumped out of bed and shouted "fire" on several occasions. The people on the hill at the back heard him shouting. He searched for the fire alarm, but went down the wrong road, and so returned to the whare to savo tho fow things he had thero. As far as he could see tho fire started in the centra near the staircase. Some of those upstairs were escaping as he ran round to find the alarm. One man was sliding down soma sheets tied together. He heard screaming at the back of the building. Remains found In Debris. Henry George Webber, an employee of the Wairoa Freezing Works, stated that John Webber wrs his brother. His age was 62 years and as far as he knew he was a single man. Constable T. Wilton JHiid that in tho course of house was completely He found that two of tho boarders were missing. Their remains were discovered in the debris. The inquest was adjourned until Monday.