DRAGGED FROM DEATH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23685, 17 December 1938, Page 24

DRAGGED FROM DEATH

MINER IN BLAZING HOUSE RESCUERS CHOP A WAY IN While three men armed with axes were chopping their way into a blazing house at Kembla Heights, on the south coast of New South Wales, they could see the man they were trying tc'rescue vainly attempting to rise from the floor. He was unconsious when they reached him, and they dragged him into the open just before the house collapsed. The victim of the fire was William Mansfield Hetherington, aged 44, a miner. He suffered from cuts on an arm and severe shock, resulting from semi-suffocation. He was alone in his home when the fire occurred. Not feeling well, he lay on his bed. A kerosene lamp was burning on a table at his side. Hetherington dozed off, and he believes he became restless and knocked over the lamp while sleep-

Marry Graham, a bread carter, saw the house in flames when he passed. He ran. into the yard and was quickly joined by John Morris and Herbert Hutchison, local residents. The rear of the house was well alight and the flames had reached the room in which Hetherington was slowly losing consciousness. The room was full of smoke, and through it the thret men could see Hetherington trying to reach the window. Flames prevented them from climbing through the window, so the three men secured axes and began to chop their way in. When they had made a hole large enough to enter they dragged Hetherington into the open and applied artificial means of respiration pending the arrival of an ambulance. , There were fears for a time that Mrs Hetherington had been incineratedj and firemen were being assisted by the police to search for her body when she arrived on the scene safe and well.