POLICEMAN'S DEED OF HEROISM.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10638, 14 April 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

POLICEMAN'S DEED OF HEROISM.

THRILLING RESCUE OF CHILDREN. LONDON, March 2. A gallant and thrilling rescue was performed by Police Constable Preece at Liverpool yesterday afternoon. A fire broke out in St. James-place, at a paint shop, over which a family named McGrath resided. Mr McGrath and his wife had gono out and left two young children, who, alarmed by the tire beneath them, barricaded the'door by pushing a table against it. When the flames had almost gained a mastery and the whole building was enveloped in smoke, Police Constable Preece rushed up the stairway, broke open the door, and, after groping about the room, found a little girl. She was insensible, and the constable curried her down to the street. _ ' ' • Then, against the entreaties of the spectators, ho made his wity through the blinding smoke and flame back to the top loom. ' Though half-suffocated and considerably burned about the face, he continued his search until he found the missing boy lying beneath a sofa. Preece threw the little fellow across his shouldei*, dashed through the flames, and reached the stieet a few seconds before the stairway collapsed. Tlie children were conveyed to the Southern hospital, and the gallant police man, wilh his moustache and hair almost burned off, and his face injured, walked to the same institmtion for treatment.