Boy Died In Garage Fire

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31006, 11 March 1966, Page 3

Boy Died In Garage Fire

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, March 10.

A container half-filled with petrol and a box of matches were the ingredients which started a fire in a Henderson garage and caused the death of a four-year-old boy, the Auckland Coroner’s Court was told today.

The Coroner (Mr A. D. Copeland) was hearing evidence at an inquest into the death of Michael Carl Reynolds, who died on December 16, 1965.

Mrs Joan Patricia Reynolds said Michael and her other son, Anthony, aged three, had asked her permission to go next door and play with Repia Waenga, aged three.

About 10 minutes later she heard the children screaming. She went outside and saw smoke rising from her neighbour’s garage. Mrs Reynolds said the three boys were rescued by neighbours. Her two sons were both badly burned. Michael died soon after admission to hospital and Anthony’s condition was still serious. Mrs Annie Waiokaha Kururangi said she was sitting in her kitchen with her daugh-ter-in-law when she heard Mrs Reynold’s screams. She rushed out to the garage and rescued her grandson, Repia Waenga. Mrs Kururangi then went back into the flames and brought Anthony out. She did not see who rescued Michael.

Tunoa Kururangi, aged 26, a driver, said he had left the doors to the garage locked. He kept a half-gallon plastic container, about half-filled

with petrol, in the garage. Kururangi said he had left a box of matches on a ledge in the garage. These were not there when he arrived home from work.

Castle Vernon Kopua, a constable, of the Henderson police, said in evidence that he found the damaged cap of the plastic container near where the fire started.

The Coroner found the boy died of shock and oedena of the larynx after extensive burns.