EXCITEMENT AT FIRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 460, 29 December 1930, Page 9

EXCITEMENT AT FIRE

MILE OF HOSE RUN OUT. BARONET’S BORROWED SHIRT. Sir Thomas Troubridge, Bart., who served in the Intelligence Department during the war, had to borrow a shirt and a jacket from Lord Forster, the former Governor of Australia, after his beautiful country residence, Old Ways Beaulieu, in Hampshire, had been burned to the ground recently. The house was built mainly of w r ood and was thatched, and stood on a hill. Fire Brigades were soon on the scene, but were hampered by scarcity of water. They had to run out a mile of hose through difficult woodland before they could secure a supply from a pond, and by that time the house was almost destroyed. Three firemen were standing on the cover of a deep well when the cover collapsed and they fell about eight feet. Their further dcsccnj; was chocked by a plank, and they held on until they could be hauled to safety. Sir Thomas Troubridge said:—“l was in Beaulieu when I heard that the roof of my house was on fire. When 1 arrived I threw off my coat and tried to put the flames out. 1 could make no attempt to save my valuables. When I was forced to leave by the fierce heat 1 left my coat behind mo. This jacket I have on is Lord Forster’s, and all I have is what I stand up in. I have just been away to buy a few things. Lady Troubridge was writing when the lire was discovered.” Lady Troubridge, who is well known as a novelist, saved the manuscript on which she was working.