UNLUCKY OMENS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22344, 15 February 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

UNLUCKY OMENS

QUEER PART IN FIRES THREE WOMEN PERISH FAMOUS THEATRE DESTROYED ■■ - i Omens played a queer part in two fires, which caused death, injury and destruction, in two big cities in Britain recently. In one of the outbreaks, which badly damaged the New Waverley Hotel, Edinburgh, and took toll of three lives, a honeymoon couple were among the seven people injured. The couple, Mr. and Mrs. John Law, of Shorthead Farm, Balerno, Midlothian, were married the previous day at Currie, Midlothian. When leaving after the ceremony they forgot something, and returned for it, whereupon tho guests pointed out that it was an unlucky omen. Tho three victims of the fire, who were suffocated in their bedrooms, were Miss Jean Stalker, aged 20. Mrs. Janet Jainieson McNeil, aged 30, and Miss Margaret Isabella Smith, aged 32. Smoke jvas seen issuing from the lower part of the hotel by Mr. John Spencer and Mr. Thomas Johnson. Mr. Spencer rang the bell and kicked at tho door, and the first person to awaken was the hotel porter.

The flames spread so rapidly to the staircases that several people were cut off. Some escaped by knotting bedsheets together and lowering themselves from windows. Others threw mattresses from a window on to an adjoining roof and leapt on to them, and were later rescued by firemen.

The blaze lasted six hours. It could be seen from all parts of the city and thousands of people left their beds to watch it. A description of the task with which the firemen were confronted was given by Firemaster P. Methven. He stated that firemen had to force the front door of the hotel with a batteringram.

" People were leaning out of their bedroom windows frantically waving towels and nightdresses to attract our attention," continued Firemaster Methven. " There were loud screams for help from some of the upper rooms, but it was impossible to discover where they were coming from. " The firemen worked heroically, and as soon as they had the flames on the first floor under control they made their way to the back and brought three people out on to the street through the building." Firemaster Methven added that a number of firemen were cut by glass and fallen debris, and received first-aid at various stations. The other omen came to light after

the Theatre Royal, Sheffield, had been burnt out. For years there had been hanging in a hotel, across the road, a framed bill of the theatre dating back to 1863.

The night prior to the fire the string snapped, and the bill fell. Variety artists, who had arrived for rehearsal, were in tears as they saw props, costumes, scenery, orchestral instruments and personal property being devoured by the flames. The first band of firemen to arrive on the scene battered down doors, but wore met with such dense smoke and fierce flames that they were driven back.

" It was like Dante's Inferno," commented ono firemnn. Practically every man in the Sheffield fire brigade joined in the fight, and searchlights were used to help them. When the roof fell 80ft. to the ground with a terrific crash, flames leapt 60ft. into the air, and firemen were in grave danger. The firemen battled heroically. When the fire was eventually subdued all that remained of the city's oldest theatre, built 150 years ago, were four blackened walls.