Accidents & Offences

New Zealand Mail, Issue 770, 3 December 1886, Page 19

Accidents & Offences

THE PORIRUA BURNING ACCIDENT.

The following report with reference to the accident at Porirua was received by Inspector Shearman yesterday week from Constable Charles Slight, stationed at Porirua:— Thomas Smith, license of the Porirua Hotel, stated to the officer above-mentioned that “at about 12.30 a,m, on the 10th inst. I went upstairs to see who were in the bedrooms and what rooms were empty. I Baw a light in Mrs Grimstone’s room, and thinking she had gone to sleep and had left the candle burning I knocked at her door; but as I could not get any reply I kicked the door, but obtained no reply. A man named Peckham, hearing thenoise, then came upstairs, and I told him to stop on the landing until I went over to the hall for Mrs Grimstone’s daughter, thinking there (might be something wrong with the woman (the hall is situated about 30 yards from the hotel). I ran over and got the girl, and was back at tbe hotel in less than three minutes, and when I got back Mrs Grimstone was down stairs in the front parlour. Her dress .was on fire near her neck and elbow. Some one said the bedroom was on fire, and I ran upstairs and found Peckham in the act of putting out the fire. The window curtain was on fire, and the ceiling paper had just caught. Peckham and myßelf put out the fire, and nothing else in the room was burnt. Peckham told me that just as I got downstairs Mrs Grimstone rushed out of the room (her clothes being on fire), and she had the appearance of a woman roused from a heavy sleep. Peckham looked into the room to see if there was any fire there, and seeing the window curtain on fire, he at once set about putting the fire out. Peckham saw no person during my absence, except Mrs Grimstone. I knew the man Andrews (deceased). He was not in my house on the 9th instant; nor have I ever seen him here. Mrs Grimstone was cook at the hotel, and had been at work from 4 on the morning of the 9th until about 11.30 p.m., and had cooked for between 400 and 500 people. Mrs Grimstone hasa double bed in her room, in which herself, her daughter and son sleep.” Constable Slight further states that he knew Andrews, and would have been sure to have seen him if he had been at the races or the hotel on the day and night in question.