TAKAKA FIRE.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15159, 7 February 1923, Page 5

TAKAKA FIRE.

ADDITIONAL 7 DETAILS.

A DAYLIGHT TRAGEDY,.

OLD MAN AND CHILD VICTIMS

By Telegraph. —Press Association, NELSON, Wednesday

In .connection With the Cigar Bay fire tragedy definite details show that the fire occurred in daylight, not during the night. Mr Thomas Organ lit" a fire in- the kitchen stove, and went out to milk shortly after six in the morning. A howling gale was blowing at the time. The cowshed was seventy yards away. A quarter of an hour later Organ noticed that the'house was in flames, and rushed home, but was too late to save the victims, John Gillyard, aged 70, and Organ’s six-year-old daughter. Organ slept in a room downstairs adjoining the kitchen, and Mrs Organ and the two younger children were also downstairs, but further away. Mrs Organ got out with the two infants, and made for the side window where Gillyard and the oldest girl slept. Gillyard came to the window, exclaimed “Oh, my God!” and went back into the room. This was the last seen of him alive.

The bodies of Gillyard and the girl were found together, charred to cinders. The old man was evidently dazed, and had endeavoured to rescue the girl; but both had succumbed to the flames.

The building was over forty years old and very dry. The gale had blown live embers into the room, and the whole place was ablaze in a few minutes.

Gillyard came originally from the West Coast.