EXCITING FIRE SCENES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23940, 16 October 1939, Page 8

EXCITING FIRE SCENES

SEVEN PERSONS RESCUED MEN CARRIED DOWN LADDERS (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, Sept. 26. Seven persons trapped by a city fire were rescued by firemen by means of extension ladders. It is believed that all those trapped would have lost their lives if the firemen had not acted so promptly and courageously. Ernest Thurlow, an artist, was hanging by one hand front a window sill, nearly 100 feet above street level, when he was rescued. Men had shouted to him to keep his grip, and women had fainted as firemen climbed a ladder to rescue him. The fire broke out at about 6.30 p.m. in the premises of Miss Bishop’s, Ltd., caterer, in the Crystal Palace Arcade building. Firemen believe that some electrical defect under a staircase started the fire, and that the inflammable material of the building burst into flame. Flames from the arcade building swept across the Century Theatre next door. About 1000 persons were in the theatre, watching the screening of a film. Mr Roger Best, manager of the theatre, ran downstairs shouting. “The theatre is on fire. I am warning you to escape.” Most of the audience did not seem to appreciate the seriousness of the warning, and it was only after several more • warnings that they began to leave. The damage to the theatre was slight. ’ , - Thurlow. who conducts an art school, was awaiting his pupils on the third floor of the Crystal Palace Arcade Building when he saw smoke pouring into the premises. “My pupils were not expected for about half an hour," he said. “ and I was making myself a cup-of tea. Then I noticed the smoke pouring underneath the doors and heard the crash of falling glass as the windows burst before the heat of the flames. I tried to escape by the front door, but a solid wall of flame and dense volumes of smoke barred my way. I ran to the window, but could not breathe. The heat and fumes forced me to hang out of the window. Then I lost consciousness as I was rescued." At the fire headquarters the alarm was received with apprehension, as the area is one of the most dangerous in the city. Within two minutes two high extension ladders had been rushed to the scene. Wheh they arrived, Thurlow was holding by one hand to a window sill. A sub-station officer, Hugh Hunter, risked his life when he ran up the partly extended ladder and seized Thurlow as he lost his grip on the window sill. Another man leaned out of a window calling for help. Firemen ran out a ladder and carried him to safety. On the other side of the Crystal Palace Arcade, five persons were working in the premises of Hoyts Theatres,--Ltd. They tried to escape by a back door, but the flanles and smoke drove them back. The five were trapped in a little office. The smoke was so bad that they had to hang out of a window to get, air. They heard cheers-when firemen ran up ladders and rescued two men from the front of the building “ We thought that we were neglected,” said one of them, “but within two minutes there were five fire ladders in the narrow lane below us and in George street. Firemen risked their lives, running up the swaying ladders to rescue us.”