PROMPT ACTION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 199, 22 August 1929, Page 6

PROMPT ACTION

SCHOOL BUILDING SAVED. Details of how prompt action by passers-by saved a school building from total destruction by fire were related to a meeting of the Wanganui Education Board yesterday in a report by the secretary (Mr W H. Swanger). On July 30 a firetoccurred in the Te Arakura School (near Feilding). The last person to leave was the headmistress. Everything was in order when she left in the afternoon, a fire which had been burning in the grate having been removed to the yard and extinguished with water. Fifteen minutes later a newspaper runner (Mr Herd), saw smoke issuing from the building. He was joined later by aMr Hansen, and they broke through a window. The cost to replace the structure would have been in the vicinity of £lOOO and, but for the action of these two men, it is certain that the whole of it would have gone. The secretary added that they must have worked hard to get the flames under control, for the blaze had reached the ceiling. When these facts were made known to the Board, expressions of approval of the men’s action were made. The chairman (Mr W. A Collins) said that they should be rewarded by the Education Department. The secretary’s action in notifying the Department and stressing the ap propriateness of making some reward was endorsed and the Board’s thanks were also confirmed.