FIRE IN MASTERTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LVI, Issue 8625, 6 December 1906, Page 5

FIRE IN MASTERTON.

Boarding House Gutted

A Lodger Burnt to Death

As Constable Kyle was returning home from Lansdowne at 12.15 o'clock this morning, he observed smoke and flames issuing from a front room facing Queen street in the upstairs portion of Mrs Watson's boardinghouse, at the corner of Bruce and Queenstreets. He at once aroused the inmates of the premises and save the alarm on the fire bell.

The Brigade arrived promptly, but the fire had a strong hold of the front portion of the building, although the absence of wind was an important factor in assisting the Brigade to confine the flames to the locality of the outbreak until the boarders in other parts of the house had escaped. The Brigade had the assistance of the Jubilee engine and after an hour's battle with the flames, which spread to the side facing Bruce-street, the fire was practically under control. Tbe prevailing calm was undoubtedly a most fortunate circumstance, as had a northerly breeze been blowing the position of the closely-built dwellings on the south side of the boarding house, in Queen-street, would have been one of extreme peril.

On search being made in the interior of the gutted buildiDg the charred remains of a boarder, named John duff, were discovered lying on his side in his bedroom, No. 10, from the window of which Constable Kyle first noticed the flames issuing. The man had apparently been fully dressed when the fire commenced, as a portion of his clothes still adhered to the body on the side on which he had been lying. The corpse was taken to the morgue by the police, where the identity of the deceased was first estab lisbed beyond doubt. Only a portion, a few inches square, of his trousers pocket was left unconsumed, and the remarkable fact was discovered that twenty single pound notes were rolled up in this fragment, only the edges of the notes being slightly scorched. The deceased had been somewhere about four months in Masterton, coming here from Ngapara, near Oamaru. He was said to have been in a tire at Gore (Olago) some time ago when a man wa3 burned to death.

Two other inmates of the house sustained painful burns, but are not seriously injured. Mrs Meyer, one of them, had her arms and head burnt, and the other person injured, Mr M. Brosnan, sustained burns on the back and arms. Dr Cook ancl Mr N. Eagar, chemist's assistant, attended to them at Oxford House, where they now are.

Mrs Watson had some of her furniture saved through the splendid efforts of the Brigade and Fire Police, but she is a heavy loser nevertheless. The house contained 28 roams, the only insurance being a policy for £200 in the National Office which also held a risk of £375<>vitthe building, which belongs to the Trust Lands Trust.

Mrs Watson si, tes that she retimd to bed at about ten minuter p ;st el u-eii, and believes that Cluff was ihe last to come in, although she is not ceriaiu on the point. He arrived somewhere about midnight.

Mrs Watson also states that she had in the house the effects of between twenty and thirty men who are away shearing, and who at other times make their home at the boarding-house. These effects were all destroyed. Several of the inmates found their safest exit from the burning building was by means of the knotted ropes provided in the bedrooms as fire-escapes. A son of Mrs Watson, who used this means of escape, had his hands rather badly skinned through the friction of the rope when descending to the

ground