GILLINGHAM FIRE VICTIMS

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1929, Page 11

GILLINGHAM FIRE VICTIMS

DEATHS BY MISADVENTURE

UNKNOWN PERSON’S ERROR

CORONER PRAISES FIREMEN

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Australian Press Association.

United Service. London, July 23. At the inquest into the death of the fifteen victims of the fire at the Gillingham Park fete fire brigade demonstration, the jury returned a verdict that death was due to. misadventure, owing to the error of an unidentified person. It added a rider stating that human lives should not be risked for such displays. The coroner, summing up, said that obviously the flares were fired in the wrong order, and Fireman Cockayne, who perished, went back to assist the victims, although he knew if meant certain death.

Fire-Lieutenant Bines, in evidence, said that when he saw shavings alight near the combustibles, including oil, he ordered Fireman Nicholls, to throw out the life lines from the second floor- and get the boys out. Nicholls failed to reply. He apparently had already been overcome. The whole thing was over in four minutes.