Burned to Death.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17982, 29 March 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

Burned to Death.

WHILE STRAPPED TO BED. DOCTORS FIGHT TO SAVE BOY. A ten-years-old crippled boy, while strapped to his bed for the night, was burned to d-ea-th in a fire which broke out at his home at Sherburn, near Durham, at midnight, says a London paper. The boy, Ronald Searle, was the son of Mr and Mrs W. S. Searle, of Wesley-terrac-e, Sherburn. Mr Searle was not at home when the Are broke out, and Dr. J. S. Clark, who lives next door, was summoned by a neighbour who saw smoke issuing from the upper rooms of the house. The four children of Mr and Mrs Searls were asleep in upstairs rooms, and Dr. Clark, wrapping a wet towel round his face, entered by the back door. On reaching the smoke-lllled room occupied by the cripple Dr- Clarke struggled to unfasten the straps which held the boy to his bed. As he was unable to do so, he tried to drag the bed from the room, hut was overcome by fumes when he reached the door and found that the bed would not go through the doorway. Before leaving the house, however, he brought another child, Joan, aged two, to safety.

Driven Back by Smoke.

Another neighbour, Mr Wilfred Brown, then smashed the windows of the other bedroom and' rescued -the other children, Joyce, aged seven, and Reginald, aged four. Dr. Clark told a Daily Mail reporter:' “When someone told me that the Searles’ house was on Are I rushed out and found the back door open. I ran upstairs through the smoke to the back bedroom where 1 knew Ronald was asleep. “The smoke fumes were terribly thick and I was'driven out three times before 1 could reach the bedside.” Mr Wilfred Brown said: “I saw that the doctor was done, so I and Jack Ilordan, another neighbour, decided to carry on. “I went to 'the front room to get the other two children. One of them was lying, on the floor under the bed with his feet sticking out from underneath. The other was lying, on the bed unconscious.” The Arc is believed to have been caused by the overturning of an oil lamp.