NURSING HOME PATIENTS HAVE NARROW ESCAPE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18187, 21 June 1927, Page 12

NURSING HOME PATIENTS HAVE NARROW ESCAPE

REMOVED IN NICK OF TIME FROM BURNING HOUSE. ''X Ter Press Association. AUCKLAND, June 20. Euroa* Private Nursing Home, a nineroomed wooden structure situated in Carlton Gore Road,.,j\'as destroyed by fire at 4.30 this morning. An adjoining residence was also badly gutted on one side, and only strenuous efforts on the part -of the Newmarket Fire Brigade prevented its demolition. The occupants of the home, two patients and two baliies, and the owners of the premises, Mr and Mrs F. A. Hill and their son and daughter, had barely sufficient time to escape from the building with their lives, and not a vestige of clothing or furniture was saved. The Newmarket Fire Brigade had a particularly hard fight, and prospects of saving the building looked hopeless

when they arrived to find flames bursting through the roof. The water pressure was increased, but just when they were beginning to make an impression on the conflagration, the pipe burst in Khyber Pass and the supply was completely cut off. With their hopes of saving the building shattered, they turned their attention to the adjoining building. In spite of their efforts, however, they could not prevent the house next door, belonging to Mr R. Eccles, chemist, from catching fire on one side and being considerably damaged.

The fire in the home commenced in the kitchen, but at present the cause of the outbreak is a mystery. When Mr Hill woke up to find the building enveloped in smoke and raging with fire, his first thought was for his patients, who were removed from their rooms and transferred to a house several doors down the road. Fireman D. Randcll had his hands badly burnt. The contents of the Nursing Home were insured with the Sun Assurance Company for £6OO, while the building was covered by a policy with the Atlas Company for £2OOO. Eccles’s house is insured with the Royal Company for £BOO, and the contents with the Mercantile and General Insurance Company for £3OO.