FIERCE BLAZE IN WELLINGTON

Southland Times, Issue 23841, 12 June 1939, Page 8

FIERCE BLAZE IN WELLINGTON

Four Persons Suffer Minor Injuries BIG APARTMENT HOUSE BADLY DAMAGED (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 10. Four persons were removed to the hospital by the free ambulance, and a fifth was treated on the spot for injuries suffered in a spectacular blaze which badly damaged a big two-storied wooden house in Thompson street early this morning. The premises, which were conducted as an apartment house, were well alight when the fire was discovered, and by the time everybody had been roused, the escape of a number on the top floor had been rendered difficult, owing to the stairway being cut off. Some consequently risked jumping 15ft to the concrete path below. Those taken to hospital are:— Arthur Rudings, a storeman; severe bums to the right arm and face. A. Cottermole, lacerated wounds to the right hand. Mrs Cottermole, severe lacerated wound on the left arm. W. L. Martin, Post and Telegraph Department cadet; punctured wound on the right arm. None of the wounds is serious. A. O’Dea, a commercial artist, was treated on the spot for a wound on the left foot. The fire was first noticed by Harry Serisen, sleeping in one of the upstairs rooms. He said that he went to sleep about 1.30 a.m., and the next thing he knew was that it was very hot and smoke was coming into the room. “I opened the door of the adjoining room and saw that half of it was on fire,” he said. “I switched on the light, and dashed out into the hall, and wakened as many people as I could. A little later I found myself outside the house.” BARRED BY FLAMES Rudings, who occupied the same room as Serisen, also wakened as many as possible, but by the time he went to go downstairs he found that the pas-sage-way was barred by flames. After being scorched he turned back and leapt through one of the windows. He struck a bank and fell further on to some steps. Although he was badly shaken and burnt, he scrambled to his feet and called O’Dea and Johnston in a room on the ground floor. Keith Robie, who occupied a room on the top floor near the back of the house, also found that he was unable to escape by the stairs. He scrambled through a small window outside, caught the drainpipe and from there fell head over heels to the ground. The fire had a good hold before its discovery at 2.15 a.m., and when the brigade received the call it was visible at the Central Fire Station nearly a mile away. Three engines were despatched, with additions from Brooklyn and Constable street. The flames were suppressed, but not before the top floor had been gutted. The rooms below suffered from water.

The owner is Mr E. J. Hill, and the occupant is Miss Lucy Dawson, who is running apartments. No particulars of the insurances were available.