SHOCKING TRAGEDY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22832, 17 March 1936, Page 14

SHOCKING TRAGEDY

NINE PERISH IN FIRE ACTIONS OF FATHER CRITICISED. Coroner and jury criticised the course taken by Adam Tyrer, a 39-year-old miner, who lost his wife and emht children -when his cottage home in Tyldesley, Lancashire, was destroyed by fire recently. To their verdict of “Death by misadventure” the jury added the rider: — “We, the jury, think Mr Tyrer might have given more thought and consideration to his wife and children.” Tyrer, in evidence, stated that he had rot noticed before going to bed whether there were any clothes on the fireguard. When awakened by his wife he went down the staircase, but the flames drove him back. On returning to the bedroom he had to grope in the darkness to find the window for fresh air.

Coroner: Why did you not go for the children and get them to the window? Tyrer: I thought the best way was for me to drop down outside and catch the children when my wife dropped them to mo.

Why didn’t you yourself go for the children? —I did what I thought was for the best.

“ I would rather have been the last to leave than the first,” declared Tyrer. “ I thought my wife would get me the children and pass them down to me.” Coroner: You went partly down the staircase. You passed the back room twice, going down and going back again, and you left the eight children for your wife to get. You lost your head. “ Everything was so sudden,” Tyrer exclaimed. “ I thought it was best to get through the window. I did not see my wife after I had got outside. I did not pee any flames in the front bedroom then, and I rushed off and met two policemen.” Joliu Glee, a collier, told the coroner that he hoard someone shout for help, and ran from his home to Tyrer’s cottage. He saw Tyrer staggering about. He shouted for Mrs Tyrer. but received no reply. Ho ran to the back of tlio hhuse and saw the back door completely burned cut. A ladder was put up to the front window, but when a man stepped on it the window broke.

Mr William Penney, a fire assessor, describing the scone, explained that paper garlands were suspended from the ceiling, put there by the children as New Year decorations. It was impossible to determine the cause of the blaze. He had been informed that Mr Tyrer bad banked the fire up overnight. He had formed the opinion, after having seen the structure of the staircase, and knowing that the staircase was not 'burning when Mr Tyrer went down it, that if the children had been awake in the first instance all could have been got out by the back way. The coroner, in summing up. observed that the jury “had to deal with human nature.” The jury, in returning their verdict, commended the brave rescue attempts of Mr Clcc.