BLAZE IN FLATS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 201, 25 August 1931, Page 8

BLAZE IN FLATS.

Case of Incendiarism in Auckland. AN ARREST MADE. (Special to the “ Star.”) AUCKLAND, August 25. Prompt action by fire brigades prevented the destruction of a large house in Sentinel Road, Herne Bay, shortly after two o’clock yesterday morning. Fifteen people, a number of children and a woman aged seventy, who is the caretaker, escaped in their night attire. The building is very old, comprising nineteen rooms, and the apartments are known as the Sentinel Flats. It was well alight when the engines arrived. The flats are owned by Charles Vernon, a tailor, of Victoria Street West, and insured with the Guardian Office for £3500, the contents being covered in the same office for £7OO. „ . The superintendent of the Fire Brigade expressed the opinion that it was a deliberate case of incendiarism. “The outbreak was started by a method I have not seen employed in Auckland before,” he said. “ When the brigade reached the scene it was _ discovered that four separate fires, entirely unconnected, were burning in widely scattered parts of the house, all in unoccupied flats. It is the clearest case of a building having been deliberately set on fire that I can recall; even a layman could see it was no accidental occurrence.” Owner Charged. Charles Vernon, aged 53, a tailor, the owner of the premises, was charged in the Police Court to-day with wilfully setting fire to the building, and was remanded for a week. Counsel asked for bail, saying that accused intended pleading guilty and wanted liberty to put his affairs in order. x . The police opposed bail, which the Magistrate (Mr Hunt) refused, stating that the accused could be given the facilities he required while in custody.