BOARDING-HOUSE FIRE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14390, 4 January 1911, Page 7

BOARDING-HOUSE FIRE.

IWO LIVES LOST. i far Press Association. WELLINGTON, Jan. 3. At 12.30 o'clock this morning a nroj broke oot in Wsllesley Boarding-liou.se, on Johnson sweet, owned by Kirkcaldie and Stains, and leased by John J" o ' s * con. Two of the inmates, an elderly •>n*n named Edward Crombie, who was employed on the wharf, ana another, supposed to be P. Meban, employed on the patent slip, were burned to death. The braiding, one of two storeys, was locked between other buildings, and them were no exits except through the front and book windows and doors. About five-an&twettty boarders were 'on premises when the alarm was given, And a wild scramble for life cnrued. Some, jumping from the windows nod verandah, sustained minor injuries. Tha building was quickly a mass of roaring flame and there was no time for the boarders to collect their belongings, the majority escaping in their night attire, some with ironswß and slippers. In the rush and scramble man last sight of one another. What exactly happened to Orombie and the other deceased is unknown and whether they suffered from jostling at the windows. is not known. Supnixrtende.at O'Brien's opinion « that Crombie was making his way to a window when he "was overcome by smoke and fell end net Ids death. The second body, was found in » passage way not near the »*"«. Both bodies were badly burned. It was utterly impossible for « > yone ■° eater the upstairs portion, ss it vas * m * m .flame* and when an entry *is Bade itna too late to Fave life. 3?*» haTe started in tte kitchen.