FATAL FIRE IN DUNEDIN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 677, 1 July 1882, Page 2

FATAL FIRE IN DUNEDIN.

Three Children Burnt in their Beds. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPOND!! NT. ] [BY TELEGRAPH.] Dunedin, To-day. A general gloom has been caused here by the breaking out of a fire at the residence of Captain Kitchener, the occupant of a fifteen-roomed house in Cumberland street. The alarm rang out about half-past twelve o’clock this morning, and in spite of the hour a considerable number of people turned out to the fire, while intense excitement reigned when it was whispered that three little children were perishing in the flames. The rumor proved only too true, for Susan Kitchener, aged n, Sydney, aged 8, and Edith, aged 6, were burned to death in their beds, while Captain Kitchener, his wife, Mr IV. H. Ash, and Bridget Mullins, a servant, only escaped with their lives by jumping from the second storey windows. The flames spread with such fearful rapidity that not a single article of furniture or clothing was saved by any of the inmates of the doomed house. The servant girl Mullins es9&ped uninjured. Mr Ash has sustained some bad cuts and bruises through falling, and Captain Kitchener is also much cut and burned. The unfortunate man, as the result of his injuries and the loss of his three little children, was delirious for some hours. He has now been removed to the Hospital The disaster is supposed to have been caused by some clothes left to air in front of the kitchen fire-igniting. The house was the property of Mr M. W. Green, EH.H, and was insured in the National offi,ce for Lyoo. Later. The origin of the fire cannot be definitely ascertained. It is alleged to have originated in the kitchen, while another surmise is that it broke out in the dining-room, a passer-by at the lime stating that he saw the flames reflected in a bed-room window near the Botanical Gardens. Captain Kitchener and his wife had only just time to effect their escape with the babjt by jumping through the front window on to the verandah and leaping down into the street. Two children followed their parents and escaped the flames by jumping into the arms of Constable Dwyer, beneath. The servant girl ran down the back stairs. When the flames had been got under, the firemen went upstairs and found the charred remains of the three elder children lying in the centre of the floor of the bedroom, just above the dining room. Captain Kitchener only recently came to Dunedin from Palmerston, and is nearly frantic with grief at the loss of his children. His principal injuries are cuts about the hands. The children who are saved are badly burned and scorched, and so is Mrs Kitchener.