FIRE TRAGEDIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1923, Page 5

FIRE TRAGEDIES.

SIX LIVES LOST. BOYS TRAPPED IN OFFICE. FOUR WOMEN PERISH. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received. Dec. 24, 8.5 p.m. London, Dec. 24. There were six week-end fire tragedies. A boy was burnt to death in Drury Street, in the centre of Glasgow. During the height of the Christmas shopping the owner of an office suddenly round his place on fire. He shouted to two boys in a room above to slide down the lift wire and then dashed to safety. Apparently the boys did. not hear, and later a boy named Stewart was seen silhoutted against the glare of a burning room. He cried: “Get Johnnie first.” While the firemen were preparing a fire escape firemen held and he was seriously hurt. Stewart leaped into coats which the Johnnie was burnt to death. The damage was £30,000. A family of seven at Aberavon had a remarkable escape, all leaping from upper storeys in their nightclothes. Four women between seventy and eighty years of age were burnt to death in various fires in London. One was rescuing her grandchild, aged three months, whose cradle was on fire.