FOUR DIE IN FIRE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14647, 3 July 1918, Page 9

FOUR DIE IN FIRE.

- >.'•■, x-~ — ,).i,.^'.,, y-«n.:y . TERRIBLE CITY TRAGEDY.

WAS LURE OF GOLD THE CAUSE? ■■-•: / SYDNEY; June 21. Charles Himmelferb, -said ito be a Russian, knows better to-day than any man m Sydney the falsity of the lure of gold. Himmelferb had a second-hand dealer's ttpro . m Sussex street. When *he went to bed an Thursday .n'ght he had thousands, of pound m gola. and other coin stowed away m all sorts of extraordinary .places. He .had a family of,, four children, ranging m. age from seven to 21 years. ... _.._. ;, '. ' . .'. ?.'.'.', iNow his shop and dwelling are gone — a smouldering, blackened. pilfrrr?»n<J ' -the bodies of tjis fp^ur..*hildren lie. at morgue, s : uffocti,^ed m the disaster. T^ie gold — he still has that, but it no longer holds attraction for him. The, jbragedy has thrown him into a cori^itioji o r i dementia, the more so : since, it Welcomes clearer at every stage of the investigation of police and firemen that it^ was the desire to retrieve 'the treasure tjiat led to the pitiful tragedy^ of four bodies, with life ebbing fast, crowded beneath a tossed and rumpled bed, „as though the children had, cut off from escape, clambered over it to the window, and looked at the great leap without. Perhaps m the last resort, as they heard, the efforts of the fire-fighters, some instinct of preservation. ..or,, .some overpowering impulse of iear^Ojrove them to cover from the blinking smoke beneath the bed. But it is also true of their position that the elder boy; ivas found with hands clutching at the corner of the floor, where the gold had been hidden between the timbers and the ceiling beneath. "There's a florin sticking through that crack," said First-class Constable Edney, when he went on duty at six o'clock yesterday „m©rning,, ^and he directed', another officer '4o secure it. • Other moneys had been found earlier. The constable, standing on a table, reached for the coin. At his touch the ceiling gave- way, and a bag of "some £500 m gold I ' fell upon inim. It was directly above this spot where rthe bodies were fpun,d. .... .^, The constable® stood, amazed 'as Jiihe realisation of the tragedy broke m upon them. This, then, supplied a Teason for the deaths of the children, .whose father I h^d earlier «aid! that they -had' followed him out of the blaring tenement, when he rushed away for help. If, as he says, they followed him, then to the police it is clear that they under- estimated the danger, and went back up the narrow death-trap of stairway fyo tfyeir . doom, lured: by: the gold 1 I Once i m the upper storey, there was no escape for them, exexcept -by «, leap of so.n\e 40ft.' .Slowly they ■ suffocated into stupefaction, and though fire-officers got them out before they were actually dead, and attempted to. revive them, they died on the way to the i hospital. The condition of the room bore terrible testimony to their last grim fight. Looking to the stairway, they would see tongues of leaping flame, and a partition glowing like an asbestos grate. Tha^- way was^the-oniy. way out, except thrmigh -the window, 1 and why they did' not take that course is only accounted for by that they stayed too lone m their endeavor to get the gold. The search of the premises began as soon as the fire waß out. Early it was discovered that much money was hidden about the premises. Here, beneath ,a dressing, -table* were disppvere4 r uff* es i*' aga^ln<iiiß s'iuffing^f a spfa, wasjmpre; coin ;'' Beneath 'a bed. -was more,; jahd m a fireplace still more, till the blackened pile> became a veritable treasttt^ hons^ 1 Then money was found hidden everywhere. There was more gold than the average person had seen at one time since- the- war, more notes than- the aver-

age person ever possesses, and more sUV'er than the average individual ever looks upon. , • . Beneath the bodies was the bag ol gold- and some £40. m silver. All day long firemen, and policemen turned Qver the debris, . and sent their finds to. the Clarence street police station, where a temporary, .counting-house was m stalled. *By the time the count had finished, the amount recovered had reached £2679— notes £1351, gold £509, silver £719. ■■■%■■•■ .

The search for money is still being carried oji m the ruijjs, and a fireman Sjrigaged' . itt th. is work . remarked : i ' 'This is the first time t. .have.beeii tired of ' picking up money !" Be and a policemar. i at 10 o'clock this morning, after Shaving picked up a trayful of florins and shillings numbering hundreds, were still ] folding ojfcher coins at the rate of perhaps • 10 a minute. .

It was- reported this morning that it was believed .that .£IOOO m .notes had been destroyed m the fire. The police, however, avo not inclined to accept this as correct. • ■ • ■■"■•■

The only notes of which they have knowledge are those "that were recovered, and these were not even soortjhe"di •One extraordinary fact Was revealed by the search. Xr\ a bankbook was found evidence that Cliarles -ttimmelferb had d'rawQ'.some hundreds of, pounds on the day. that Great Jjvjtain ente'rpd the war against Germany-r-that ., particular account, m fact, being closed. - ■

The premises and the tw.g other places adioihin<r weve owtied by .him. Tlie in* stiranc^ amotint to £3800. "

AWAKENED BY THE FLAMES

Mr. Hitniflelferb j who was m a pathetic stflfe" of 'anguislv gave" the .story of his faihfly's tragedy: "The whole family went to bed about 8 o'clock. Tlien at midnight I was awakened by my wife's cries, ~ -.and she tcfl4.\ me that ahe smelt smoke, although she believed at the time that the 'fire was m the house adjoining the shop. I got out of bed and awakened the two boys-, who were sleeping m the hack room, with jne. I then went to the front bedroom, and. taking the girls j- brought the four downstairs. My wife folowed me, and when we reached the ground, floor the- shop was well alight. Opening the d^ing-room V^ndow which looks out over the backyard, I told my wife, and children I was going to rouse neighbors and secure elp. I jumped out of the window on to a small ,&he4, ,«and. then, got into. the yard and out >of "the Hack gate. I had no idea then that the Are was so serious. My. wife must have, opened! the diningrooni shop door, and a. draught being thus created; , the flames grew and quickly travelled to the room where she and the children .were standing* cThen I think they most have gone upstairs m an attempt to secure the money;" ' Mrs. Himmelferb must have gone to the front bedroom to get £1000 m notes which were In the wardrobe. But the flameß'had speedily reached the^,staircase and. top landing, and' becoming terrified she got out of the bedroom window and jumped to the footway helow, a distance of about 15ft.