FIRE FATALITY

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21035, 10 February 1940, Page 8

FIRE FATALITY

WAITRESS TRAPPED BLAZE IN BIG HOTEL LODGERS BROUGHT TO SAFETY BRIGADE WORKS IN DARK (By Telegraph.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Saturday A fire fatality occurred early this morning when Miss Kathleen Olive Matthews, aged 17, employed as a waitress, failed to escape from Hotel Lloyds, Lower Cuba Street. Formerly known as the Columbia Hotel, it is of six storeys and one of the oldest of the larger hotel buildings in Wellington. The brigade received the alarm at 4.5 a.m. and arrived within two minutes, but already the fire had broken through the roof, and Superintendent Woolley sent out a brigade call, not so much on account of the fire risk as of the risk to human life. There were 30 or more boarders in the place, few of whom had left the building when the brigade arrived. The fire was extraordinary in the terrific speed with which it passed from the ground floor to the sixth floor, rearing up a disused dumbwaiter, the surrounds of which were of plaster board. In consequence the fire showed on every floor and mushroomed out in a terrific blaze on the sixth floor, where Miss Matthews slept alone. Escape Not Used Evidently dazed by the fire, she dashed out of her room and made for the narrow winding stairs. She was turned back before reaching them and ran past her own room to the room beyond, where her body was found after the fire. A tragic aspect is that the window of her room faced directly upon the fire escape. The window is of the connected swing type, not opening full as does a- sash window, but whether this was the cause of her failure to get out that way cannot be known. The brigade made an extraordinary save of the building, cf the lath and plaster partitioning, wood floors and joists and the cardboard wallboard surrounding the main lift well. Its immediate task after leading in the first hoses was to assist the boarders to escape through the heavy smoke and past danger on every landing to the ground floor. Their difficulties were increased by the fact that the lights had failed before they arrived. Eight machines and about 60 men were engaged. A large number of salvage sheets were used to protect the furniture and bedding, and the loss in this respect was actually very small. Miss Matthews’ parents reside at Miramar. It is believed the fire started on the ground floor, close to a hot water furnace in the kitchen.