AGED MAN LOSES HIS ALL IN BLAZE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19109, 30 June 1930, Page 6

AGED MAN LOSES HIS ALL IN BLAZE.

LIFE SAVED BY BRAVE ACTION OF TWO WOMEN.

When fire destroyed a little wooden cottage at 8, Aberdeen Street, early this morning, to most people who watched it was merely a fire, spectacular while it lasted. To Mr D. Manning, the ninety-eight-year-old owner and occupier of the place, it was the destruction of all his belongings and of all his hopes. It had meant, too, nearly the loss of his life. This morning, when a reporter approached Mr Manning, he was busy with an old friend in picking over the rubbish that littered the floor of the burnt-out cottage, looking for little treasures that had meant much to him. Erect and sprightly, deafness was the only weakness that gave any idea of his great age. “ I. can’t tell you. much,” he said to a reporter, “ except that but for the action of two ladies an old man would have lost Jjis life here this morning. I don’t know who. they were, and I was too upset to thank them this morning.” Bunt Out Suddenly. He had not been feeling too well for some time, he said, and went to bed early last evening without even his usual smoke. Pie slept soundly* but shortly before seven o’clock was awakened by a crackling noise. Pie could see nothing at first, but suddenly a picture on the wall facing him fell with a crash, and flames burst out all around him. The fire had worked round inside the scrim-covered walls, and had a strong hold. The old man was bewildered at first, and tried to collect a few of his treasured belongings. lie was in serious danger from the flames when two women who had been passing on their way to mass at St Mary’s Catholic Church rushed in and pulled him out. Scarcely was he outside when the whole building burst into flame. The Fire Brigade was called, but could do little to save the place.