SERIOUS FIRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22647, 8 February 1937, Page 6

SERIOUS FIRE

iVICTOBIAN TOWNSHIP

SEVERAL NARROW ESCAPES EXPLOSION OF GAS CYLINDER Narrow escapes from the flames and also from the explosion of a gas cylinder were experienced by three young men when fire swept a large section of the township of Boolarra, 100 miles east of Melbourne, early one morning recently, causing damage estimated at £SOOO. When two of the men were trapped by "the flames in the Railway Hotel they had to smash a window to escape, and the third, after ho had dashed through a burning passage, collapsed in the main street with his hair and eyebrows singed. With a report which was heard two miles away, a gas cylinder exploded as the young men were about to re-enter a burning storeroom to save a quantity of liquor. The licensee of the Railway Hotel. Mr. James Hamilton, his brother Brian Hamilton, aged 17 years, and two lodgers, Messrs. Frank McNamara and Ernest Little, were playing cards in the hotel when they heard a shout of "Fire" from Mr. C. Steart, the local baker. Mr. Steart had seen flames through the window of the private parlour. Escape Through Window So rapidly did the flames spread through the woodeu walls that by the time the men had gone into the street for help and re-entered the hotel the fire had a strong hold. Along a burning passage the licensee and Mr. McNamara ran to save their personal belongings. "Within a few minutes," said Mr. McNamara, "the flames crossed the passage, and I could feel the hot air on the door. 1 jammed my foot against it. When we opened the door to escape flames burst into the room. I slammed the door. Wo made another attempt to escape, and again the flames shot into the room. We realised then that our only chance of escape was through the window. Wo kicked in the glass and scrambled through as tho fire spread into the room." / Flames were burning tho ceiling of another passage when Mr. Ernest Little made an attempt to save personal belongings in his room. When he emerged from the building his hair and his ej'ebrows were singed, and he was choking from smoke. He collapsed on tho footpath, but quickly recovered. Hurled Like Rocket Scattering fragments of timber and metal over a wide area, a gas cylinder in tho store-room exploded and roared high in the air like a rocket, leaving a trail of blue flame behind it. The cylinder, which weighed 2261b., was found in a paddock nearly a-quarter of a mile away. It snapped two telephone wires, and tho explosion hurled a piece of timber through the window of the store of Mr. W. A. Purvis, on tho opposite side of the main street. In less than half an hour the fire spread from tho hotel to three shops, two stores and a house, more than an acre being ablaze. Good work was done by Constable Pearce in organising bucket brigades, but the efforts of the residents were unavailing. Mr. A. Youngs, butcher, and his wife and daughter fled from the dwelling at the back of their shop as the fire swept through the front. Altogether 13 persons were temporarily homeless.