FIRE IN THE WEST END.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13892, 24 December 1913, Page 5

FIRE IN THE WEST END.

BLOCK OF FLATS DESTROYED,

THRILLING RESCUES

HEROISM OF THE FIREMEN

ONE BODY RECOVERED

London, Dec. 22

"A fire occurred at- Park Mansions Flats at Knightsbridge early in the morning. The occupants of the sixth floor were rescued by ladders. ,C*io charred, body was found. It was the largest fire in the West End since the outbreak tit the Carlton Hotel.

The inmates were aroused by the shouts of onlookers in the street.

Three maid servants in their nightdresses took refuge on tho roof. A fireman climbed ladders 200 feet higlr to tho screaming .women, who threat-i encd to jump-- unless rescued immediately^ ,;.■■■ ...- v "■<",'■.■ ■ , •■■■■. '/ They were finally rescued singly on a swinging ladder. The two upper stories blazed furiously. A waiter named Edwards died when returning to secure some* money. . A housemaid, states that .while escaping down a; corridor in the suffocating smoke she heard Edwards, the waiter, stumble and fall helpless. She dragged him until the flames and smoke overpowering her, obliged her to leave him.

The firemen's heroic efforts in scaling tho 'building held the spectators spell-bound.