FIRE IN LONDON

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8612, 24 December 1913, Page 5

FIRE IN LONDON

FIREMEN’S HEROIC EFFORTS SCREAMING "WOMEN THREATEN TO JUMP. By Telegraph—Pre»s Association—Copyrisfil LONDON, December 22. A fire broke out in the Park Mansions Flats at Knigbtsbridge early in tho morning. Tho occupants of tho sixth floor were rescued by means of ladders. A charred body was found in the ruins. It was the largest fire in the West End since the Carlton Hotel fire. The inmates of tho flats were aroused by shouts from onlookers in the street. Three maidservants in their nightdresses took refuge on the roof. Firemen climbed ladders for two hundred feet, and the screaming women threatened to jump unless t hoy were rescued immediately. Finally they were rescued one at a time over a swaying ladder, whilst tho two upper storeys blazed furiously. A waiter died through returning to secure his money. A housemaid states that while escaping down a corridor, through suffocating smoko, she heard Edwards, the waiter, stumble. He was helpless, and she dragged him until tho flames and smoko became overpowering, and she was obliged to leave him. The firemen made heroic efforts in scaling the building, holding the spectators spellbound.