FIRE AT WELLINGTON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15032, 4 January 1911, Page 5

FIRE AT WELLINGTON.

TWO MEN BURNED TO DEATH.

(Pjr United Pbess Association.)

WELLINGTON, January 3. At 12.30 this morning a fire broke outl in Wellesley Boarding-house, Johnston street, owned by Messrs Kirkcaldie and! Stains, and leased by Mr John Jackson. Two of the inmates (an elderly man named Edward Crombie, employed on the wharf, and another) were burned to death.

The building, two storeys high, was locked between other buildings, with not space between. The exits were only through the front and back windows and the doors. Twenty-five or 27 boarders, were on the premises. ' When the alarm, was given a wild scramble for life en-i 6ued, some, jumping from the windowa and the verandah, and sustaining minor. injuries. The building waa quickly a mass of roaring flamk There was no time for the boarders to collect their belongings, the majority escaping in their, night attire.

In the rush and scramble the men loetj sight of one another, What actually happened to Crombie and the other man is unknown. Superintendent O'Brien's, opinion is that Crombie, in making his way to the window, wag overcome by, smoke, fell, and thus met his death, The second body was found in the paesageway not near the exits. Both bodies were badly burned. It was utterly impossible ioi\ anyone to enter the upstairs portion as it was a macsol flames, When an entry, was made it was too late to save life. The fira is supposed to have started in the kitchen. ,

It is understood that the name of th{ second victim is ; P. Meban, a young man, last employed at the patent slip. The building was insured'for £800— £400 in the Yorkshire office and £400 in the Commercial Union; The furniture was insured, but the amount is not known ] THE INQUEST. At the inquest on the victims John Jackson, proprietor of tho Wellesley Board/nghouse, deposed .that the seat of the fira was near the dining 'room, in a recess, used as a linen closet. 1 Ho could not warn all the inmates owing to the rapidity, of the flames. A watch produced bearing the name P. Mebin was found in tie room occupied by Mebin, who was 25 or 26 years old. The fire escapes, of which there were four, met with tho required meuts of the City Council. Charles Kenny, grooer, who shared a' room with Crombie, said the latter retired between 10.30 and 11, under the in.fluepcc of liquor. On the alarm being given he woke Crombie, who did not seem to understand, and did not got up. Wit-, ncsa pulled Crombie out of bed and put him on his. feet, telling ,him to follow;. He got through a back window on to a lean-to, thinking Oronibie was following'. Superintendent O'Brien, of the Fire Brigade, said Crombie's body ' was 'found frice downwards on the floor. There was some clothing on the feet,, as if .deceased had been in the act of putting it on. In this room was a window facing a blank wall. The second body was discovered in a passage not v far from a window leading to a fire escape. This corpse was on its; side, face downwards--and unclothed, close to where the watch engraved with P. Mebin's name was found.

The body concerning the identity "of which some doubt exists is that of a man sft 7m in height, and of stout build. He had brown hair well over his h&ad and a brown moustache. Three teeth are missing from the upper front jaw, and two from the. lower. Thtre was nothing on the body by which it could be identified. A verdict of "Accidental death" was returned.

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