FATAL FIRE.

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18343, 1 June 1931, Page 6

FATAL FIRE.

FOUR LIVES LOST, OTHERS HAVE NARROW EBCAPI* DESTRUCTION OF HOTEL. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) GREYMOUTH, Saturday. A disastrous fire occurred at th*» Union Hotel at 5.30 a.m. to-day and resulted in the loss of four lives. The victims were:— David Isbester, aged 28, railway fireman, formerly of Maori Hill, Dunedin. William Haddock, aged 29, railway linesman, formerly of Petone. Patrlok Phelan, aged 29, barman. Edmund Ryan, aged 41, bushman. There were ten Inmates and all were sleeping in the upper storey. Mr James Collogan, the, proprietor and his wife and daughter escaped through a window to an adjoining roof. Narrow Esoapes. A housemaid, Mary Southern, using a rope, escaped through a window on the -opposite side, while Mr John Cos* grove, railway shunter, and Mr Michael Deere, watersider, had narrow; escapes, being burned slightly before jumping from window’s. Mr Deere opened the door of his room to meet a blast of flame. He turned and jumped out of the window to the ground with his night attire in flames. He narrowly missed striking a fence, Mr Cosgrove’s hair was singed oft.. The alarm was given by the lira brigade superintendent, Mr Patrick Deere, whose house adjoins the hotel, and the brigade made a wonderful save of most of the building. The firemen thought that everybody was out of the building until they found, when the Are had been mastered, the bodies of Messrs Isbester and Phelaa in the passage of the upper storey. One body was at either end of the passage. The victims had groped toward the exit. Mr Ryan’s body was found in a front room in which he had sought escape. Mr Haddock’s body was beside his bed. Victims Suffocated. All the victims had evidently been suffocated, exoept Mr Phelan, wh-osa body was burned considerably. The hotel was a wooden structure and was insured for £I2OO with the Phoenix Company and £6OO with the South British. The stock was insured for £4OO in the Phoenix offlea and the furniture for £224 in the Phoenix office and £274 in the Soutl* British. Two boarders, Mr William Baker, motorman, Mr William Ryall, and also one of the staff, Miss Belle Irvine* were absent from the hotel last night, being out of town. Mr Thomas Donovan, another boarder, was sleeping in a oottage at the back of the hotel and was unhurt. The doors at the ends of the passage on the upper storey were unlocked, the victims evidently being partially overcome by the smoke In their rooms. Messrs. Isbester and Ryan shared a room and Messrs, Pheian and Haddock shared another: room, both at the top of the stairs.