FULLER PARTICULARS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 623, 4 July 1882, Page 2

FULLER PARTICULARS.

Further accounts say that Mrs Kitchener wlio ocuupied ono bedioom with her two daughters anil baby, wus awoke by the sensation of suffocation, and hearing the other children coughing. JShe woke all' the children, went into the next room, called her husband, with whose two eons lie was sleeping. Sue lifted the baby out of its cot, linked her arm round tbe eldesj girl, and dragged another girl by the hand along the passage, where,., she .wan met by the flames at the stair head ; the eldest girl succumbed to the smoke, and fell. The brave woman struggled on tbrough the flames, 6till retaining hold of the other girl, till she reached tbe foot of the stairs, where the flames raged terrifically. A policeman now burst in the trout door, ami seeing the child was dead, disengaged her from it. Mrs Kitchener and baby thus got out of the front door, not from the second story, ah before te;egraphed. Captain Kitchener managed to throw tbe two eldest boys out of the upper window facing tbe street, and tried to rescue mother, but tbe flames drove him back. Ho is fearfully bruised by hie j>ll,

sustaining severe internal injuries. Hβ has been delirious ever since. Mrs Kitchener, who retains all her faculties, thinks tho fire originated from the careless use of colonial coal. Dr Coughtrey, who * is in attendance, despairs of the recovery of Captain Kitchener or the baby. Capt. Kitchener served for many years in the 41st Regiment, a greater part of the time _in Jamaica, where he was married. In 1874- he was induced to come to New Zealand to maiwigo the estate of his uncle Colonel Kitchener, at Waiheno, near Palmerston. Hβ relinquished the management two years ago, since which fortune has frowned upon him. Their circumstances became worse, and six months ago he opened a boarding establishment in the house where the fire occurred. As every » article is destroyed, and not insured, the fire renders them absolutely penniless. General sympathy is expressed for the unfortunate family. The scene at the recovery of the bodies was heart-rending. July 2. Captain and Mrs Kitchener, who were weverely burned at the fire on Saturday, are improving, and considered out of ganger. '