Woman Killed During Fire At Hotel Cargen, Auckland.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18785, 14 June 1929, Page 10

Woman Killed During Fire At Hotel Cargen, Auckland.

TERRIFIED BY FLAMES, AND FELL FROM ESCAPE TO CONCRETE BASEMENT.

(Special to the “ Star.”)'

AUCKLAND, June 14. TRAGEDY followed a fire at the Hotel Cargen at 4 o’clock this morning, when Miss Sadie Lynch, head waitress, terrified by the flames which raged about her, fell from the fire escape to the concrete basement 30 feet below, and was killed.

The fire was discovered between 3.30 a.m. and 3.45 a.m. by the night porter, J. Gascoigne, when he was doing the rounds of the building. He had completed the tour of the hotel and had gone down into the main lounge, where he saw smoke, but at the nloment he could not locate the fire. As soon as he had discovered the flames, which spurted through the ceiling, he rang the Central Fire Brigade, which arrived within a few minutes. His next step was to wake the manager, Mr G. Lund.

Even at this stage it was not thought by either the manager or the night porter that the fire was serious, for the flames they could see in the ceiling were only tiny ones. Gascoigne rushed up on to the landing from which the flames were coming, and opened the door of the room where it was thought the fire had its hold. As the door was opened there was a roar of raging fire inside. Then came a terrifying explosion, and, in a few seconds, the corridor and landing were a mass of flames and smoke. The two rooms next to the blazing bed chamber were occupied by members of the staff, whom Gascoigne roused. A man and a woman escaped without much difficulty. “ All Over Quickly.” “ I raced up the stairs to the next landing and awakened the rest of the staff,” said Gascoigne. “ Then I switched on the fire alarms, and the clanging woke many of the people in the hotel. By then the Fire Brigade had arrived, and within a few minutes the blaze was under control. In a short time one w-ould not have thought that there had been a fire at all, it all

happened and was all over so quickly. T also went up on to the top floor to ’give the alarm, but thre6 girls who sleep up there had gone.” When Gascoigne got downstairs again everybody was safe, but Miss Lynch could not be found. Two girls who work in the office and whose rooms were next to Miss Lynch’s, had escaped down the fire ladder. It was thought that Miss Lynch had also escaped in this way. Some of the staff then began a search for Miss Lynch, and she was found lying semiconscious on the concrete basement, which faces Short Street. They managed to get her to her feet and gave her a glass of water, but shortly after the doctor had arrived Miss Lynch died. In the course of her fall, she had hit her head on a water cistern and was badly injured.

“No Need for Tragedy.” “It was a ghastly thing,” said Gascoigne, “because there were no need for such a tragedy. I pulled Miss Lynch out of her room into the corridor and directed her to the balcony facing Eden Crescent. It seems that she went back to her room to do some packing, and, frightened by the smoke sweeping through the corridor, decided to get out of the window and on to the fire escape. I don’t think for a moment she jumped. She must have been somewhat dazed and it is more likely that she overbalanced and fell.” There was a sheet found hanging from Miss Lynch’s wundow and it is thought that she may have intended to lower herself by this means, although the sheet was not tied to anything. There were four fire escapes by which she could have got to safety.