The Moturoa Fire.

Opunake Times, Volume VII, Issue 306, 13 August 1897, Page 3

The Moturoa Fire.

The Taranaki lit raid says Mi Hawke tried all he knew to arouse the occupants of the up; or floor. The fire was then sweeping from the north end of the structure, and had evidently started in or near the fireplace at the back of the bar. This location gave the upper floor occupants a poor chance of escape, as they were sleeping overhead ; and both Mr Drader and Captain Turner were suffocated in their sleep, and thus met a painless death. The way the bodies fell to the ground would lead one to infer such was the case, for neither appears to have struggled at all. The only deduction to be made is that the fire originated near the fireplace or chimney through some cause, and what leads to this opinion is that Turner, who slept almost over the parlor in which the fireplace is situated, was burnt almost to a cinder ; while Mr Drader’s body was only burnt at the extremities. Drader and Captain Turner were both well known in the.town and district. Mr Drader came here some four years ago as a petroleum export. He was only 25 years of age, and was a native of the city of Petrolia, in Canada. He was of German descent. Hia father and brothers are all engaged in the trade, both in Canada and Europe. Mr Drader left Canada when a youth, and worked for some years as a petroleum expert in Galicia in Austria. He left there under engagement to bore for artesian water in the big back blocks of New South Wales and Queensland, and from this was engaged to drill for petroleum at Moturoa. A real “ white man ” he was at heart, and those who had the melancholy duty at looking at the charred remains this (Monday) morning could scarcely believe that that was all that remained of the kindhearted genial generous “ Bill ” Drader.

Captain Turner was more intimately connected with Waitara than New Plymouth. He originally came from Nelson, and for mUny years navigated small steamers between Waitara and Mokau. Some mouths ago ho was engaged by the New Plymouth Harbor Board to take command of the Thomas King dredge, and he was under this engagement when he met his fate this (Monday) morning. He was a bluff, good natured man, but ratber reserved. He was about 55 years of age.