THE FATAL FIRE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7181, 16 January 1892, Page 3

THE FATAL FIRE.

THE INQUEST. An inquest was held at the Metropolitan Private Hotel at 10 a.m. to-day, before Mr E. Beetham, Coroner, and a Jury, of whom Mr George M'Clatchie was choßen Foreman, touching the death of Martha Jane Blackmore, who died from injuries received at the fire at Mr Raphael's house on the night of Thursday, Jan. 14. The Jury viewed the scene of the fire and the body of the deceased. The following evidence was taken :— Dr Ovenden : I was called to see the deceased on Thursday night about halfpaet eleven. She was lying on her back in bed, and was suffering great pain from burns. She was quite Eenisible. The skin on the body was completely burnt off, except on a email portion of her chest, her Bhouldere, head and neck. The burns on her hands and feet were very deep, called the third degree of burns. She died from shock, the effect of the burns, at twenty minutes past four next morning. Frederick Blackmore: I am a wheelwright, residing at Papanui. The deceased was my daughter. She was tweaty-one on July 22 last. She had been in Mr Raphael's Bervice about nine months. I saw her after the accident. She said, "Oh dear, dad, I'm very bad." She did not say anything as to how the accident had occurred. Kate Eaphael : I resided in the house which waa burned, and was at home when the fire broko out. The deceased went upstairs to her room about twenty minutes to eleven. She had a candle, she was not in the habit of reading in bed to my knowledge. The fireplace underneath her room had not been used for years, and the only fire which had been in the house during the day, that in the scullery, was out before we went upstairs. Baron Lionel Raphael : I lived with my brothers and sisters in the house which was burned. There were seven of us in the house, including the servant, when the fire broke out. The deceased had a room upstairs in the back. After eleven I came home from the theatre with my brother Walter. I turned off the gag meter. No matches were struck, and there was no sign or smell of fire when we went up to bed. About fifteen or twenty minutes later I smelt smoke, and had a sort of choking i sensation. I told my brother, who said, " You're dreaming." Soon afterwards I noticed the smoke again. I got up and went outside to the landing, and the flameß met me. I cannot say whether they came from the girl's room oe from the top of the stairs, as there was too much smoke. I knocked at the girl's room, but got no answer. I got a jug and threw it into the room to rouse her, telling her to get out by the window. The place was full of Bmoke. I ran back to my sisters' room, broke the window looking on Madras street with a chair, and got them out of it. One was left behind at first, and I ran back and got her. I called for help, and Mr M'Lean came and assisted them down the ladder. I went back to the girl's room, but it waß so full of smoke I could not get in, and the flame 3 caught my face. I got on to the roof of the leanto at the back, and then Mr M'Lean came. I could not Bay, certainly, where the fire broke out, but I should think in the girl's room. The building was a very old one, and the wall paper and scrim in that room were bagging out. There were curtains in the room. I know that one night the girl sat up sewing late, with a light in her room. I did not Bee any light in the girl's room on the night of the fire. I did not go past her window, however, when t came home. James M'Lean : I waa standing at the corner of Madras and Cashel streets with Mr Mably, about 11.15 on Thursday night and heard a crash of glass and a cry for help from Mr Raphael's house. I went to the Madras Btreet front and called out " What's the matter." Someone called out from the upstairs window, " For God's Bake go to St John's and get the ladder. The house is on fire." We got the ladder, and one of the girls wbb thrown into my arms. I carried down another and Mr Mably carried down a third. When they were all on the ground, one of the girls said "Is Jane out." I asked who Jane was and she said, "The servant girl." She said that the girl's room was upstairs in the rear of the building. I went there with Mr Mabley, and called out, "Is anyone there?" I heard an answer from upstairs, but could not ace the window for the smoke. Mr Mabley put the ladder against the house and I took off my coat and hat and got on the top of the lean-to. After two attempts I found the window which had a sorb of cave over it. It was open. I felt the deceaaed'a hand on the window sill. She was lying in the room with her hands and chin resting on the sill. She was unconscious. I got her out with some difficulty. I got partly in at the window, put my right arm under her, and drew her through the window. Something seemed to hold her back, aDd gave way suddenly. She and I fell back on to the roof of the lean-to. She fell against Mr Mably, who was on the top of the ladder, and 1 fell to the ground. I picked myself up and helped him to lower the girl to the ground. I should say she was five seconds on the roof of the lean-to, but the whole of her body did not touch it. There wag no fire in her bedroom. It was burning underneath the lean-to and underneath her bedroom too. My opinion is that she had got to the window, became stupified, and lay on the floor, and that she received a great part of her burns from the floor, which was hot enough to cause them. She had only a night dress on, and that was torn off in getting her through the window. I am positive the fire did not begin in the girl's bedroom. When going round the house I saw that there was no fire in the upper room, but that there were flames underneath. William Mably : I can corroborate Mr M'Lean'a statement in most of the points. I think the fire originated underneath the deceased's bedroom. I saw the glare underneath as we were going round the house. Igotontheladder with Mr M'Lean; he got into the smoke, and I saw nothing of him till he came out with the girl. He came out with a rush. I said, " Let her go, and I'll catch her." He let her go, and she fell on my shoulder. I caught her, and let her down as well as I could. We all came to the ground in a heap. She was only on the roof for a revy few seconds. She made a mark of blood on my shoulder. I saw smoke in her room, but no flames. I think I could have seen flames had there been any. I think that the burns were not all received from the roof, but that the greater part of them were got when she WBs in the room. Her whole body was never on the roof of the lean-to. The Coroner said that it seemed that the fire must have begun underneath the deceased's room. Was there any fireman present who could give an expert's opinion on the question P Lieutenant Smith, of the Christchurch Fire Brigade, who was one of the Jury, said, in reply to the Coroner, that had there been fire in the girl's room the witnesses M'Lean and Mably must have seen it. Perhaps the girl might have tried to get down stairs, and met the flame?, which burned her clothes off. She then, perhaps, went back to her room, and tried to get out of the window. Mies Raphael re-called : Said that people had to pass through the room beneath the girl's bedroom in order to go upstairs. She was quite sure that the fire began upstairs. They bad supper in the scullery, a large room, on the evening of the fire, but the fire in the grate there was out by six o'clock. There was a gas jet in the scullery, but the girl turned it off before they went upstairs. The scullery was not underneath the servant's room. This concluded the evidence. The Coroner said that the origin of the fire was shrouded in mystery to a certain extent. However, the principal thing for the Jury was to determine how the girl came by her death, and they would see that the immediate cause was the effect of the burns. Considerable admiration must be felt fcr the two young men who had 1 kept their heads, showed considerable

, smartness and vigour in the matter, and | had done their level best to save the poor J girl's, life. Mr Baron Raphael, too, i appeared to have shown considerable presence of uul<l iv getting his sisters out. It would be for the Jury, however, to express any opinion on these mbtter3 if ( they thought proper. , The Jury, alter a brief retirement, returned a verdict to the effect that the deceased had died from the effects of burns received during the fire. The Foreman said that the jurymen wished to express ■ their high admiration of the conduct of Mes3ra M'Lean and Mably, who had gone : through a very considerable amount of I risk in going on to the roof of the lean-10, ■ which might have fallen in at any monient, in order to save the deceased. j The Coroner said that he quite concurred in the opinion of the Jury. Messrs M'Lean and Mably deoerved the thanks, : not only of the Jury, but of the community for the plucky manner in which ■ they had risked their lives to save that of this poor girl. He was sure that every- , body in the community must feel grateful to them. Mr M'Lean thanked the Corocct and Jury for their expression of opinion. The proceedings then closed.