DEATH FROM BURNS

Chronicle (Levin), 7 March 1946, Page 8

DEATH FROM BURNS

-Press Association

HOSPITAL RED FIRE

By Telegraph—

A l CKLANI), Marcli 6. An ehlerly patient. in tlie Aucklami HospitaL ilied oarlv fliis morning from extensive burns received when his bed in a hospital ward caught fire about inidnight on Tnesday. II e was Iiu'liard \fanoy, aged S0, retired, of I'itt Street ••ity. Deceased was adniitted to lios pital on .Tanuary IS. suffering fr®m a broken log received wlien he fell at h i> ;io;ne. After bemg in one of the maia wards, he was shifted to a single roon in a ward on tlie ground floor. it nunderstood that an attendant is 0sta Grmed in the ward at mghts to sunei \ ise the patients. A few niinutes before midnigrt oi Tnesday a cursing sister was walking tthe ward when she saw smoko issuin., from a ventilator in the outer wall o{ the buihling. She rushed inside and found Maney's bed ablaze and the patient lying unconscions on the bed. The fire was controlled by niembers of the hospital staff within a few niinutes and .Maney was given niedical attea tion, Tlie bedclothes and mattress wero destroved and one of the concrete walls if ihe rootn y:hs s'-orched by the liie It is thought that the victim was o\er ''onie by tlie sinoke soon after the lire begnn, as no cries for assisrance wero heard. Tt is understood that one of hi> legs was encased in plaster at the time He received severn burns to one fooi and other paris of his bod y and died at 7 o'clock this niorning. It is stated that all cigarettes ann aiatehes liad been taken from deceased, as the usnal precautionnrv measure, Dut it is thought that a person who had been visiting lnni during the evening may have obtained cigarettes and matches for him. He was a heuvy smoker and it is eoasidered proli'ibln that the fire started when he i'eJJ isleep uhile smoking In bed.