LAUNCH ON FIRE

Taranaki Daily News, 31 October 1935, Page 2

LAUNCH ON FIRE

MAN ASLEEP IN CABIN. TIMELY ASSISTANCE GIVEN. At Coff’s Harbour, Sydney, recently, William Edwards and Ray Selby, who had returned from a deep-sea fishing excursion about nine o'clock at night, found that a launch owned by Robert McElwain was on fire. They ran their boat alongside and quickly threw buckets of watei' on the blaze, which was coming from a kapok mattress. After the fifteenth bucket had been thrown in, they were startled to hear a voice from within say, “Who is there? What’s wrong?” Then Frank Hickson, who had been asleep, crawled from the cabin. If it had not been for the timely intervention of Edwards and Selby the sleeper would have been trapped in the cabin, as the flames were spreading quickly, and the bed on which he was lying was smouldering. Nearby was a tank containing three and a-half gallons of petrol. The fire was subdued, but damage was done to the interior of the launch.