FATAL PETROL FIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20841, 7 April 1931, Page 11

FATAL PETROL FIRE.

LOSS OF TWO LIVES. LIGHTING OF A MATCH. DOCTOR REBUKED BY CORONER. How the lighting of a match near a petrol pump at Belmont, near Newcastle, New South Wales, on March 7 caused fatal burns to two people was related at the inquest on Mrs. Henrietta Mario House, aged 28, and her daughter, Shirley House, aged five. A finding of accidental death in both cases was returned. On his way to visit a sick brother, Dr. W. B. J. Shechan, with his sister, Mrs. House, and the child Shirley, stopped his single-seater car at a garage at Belmont. Two gallons of petrol had been put into the tank, and the doctor, before taking the road again, struck a match to light a cigarette. In a flash the car burst, into flames, the fire igniting the dresses worn by the woman and child. In a desperate effort to save his passengers Dr. Shechan seized and threw them bodily from the blazing car. Cyril Frederick Regan, garage proprietor and a man named William Farnham, assisted in the rescue efforts, and by wrapping the woman and child in bagging succeeded in quelling the flames. Dr. Shechan was badly burned on one hand. Mrs. House died on March 11 and Shirley on March 15. "I am sorry Dr. Sheehan is placed in this position," said the coroner, "but undoubtedly he lit the match unintentionally. At the same time I put it to him that at the time of tho accident he did not know the power of petrol. While tho doctor did not realise that he was doing something dangerous, I must come to the conclusion that he was guilty of some recklessness, but not gioss recklessness such as to make him criminally liable." The coroner recommended that all motor service station proprietors be issued with instructions prohibiting smoking nsar petrol pumps.