FIREMAN KILLED.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1414, 15 April 1912, Page 5

FIREMAN KILLED.

SHOCKING EVENT. THE DANGER OF LIVE WIRES- ' TWO CONFLAGRATIONS. MANNERS STREET & HATAITAI* After a hard night of dangerous toil with the fire-fighting force of Wellington City, Third-Officer William Robert ll'Lean met his death 011 duty at a ftro.,,, in Mnnuers Street curly 011 Sunday,",' morning. • >.• >• following instructions, ho was' in ■ tluy- :■ act of.swinging himself 011 to the bottomstep of an escape Inddcr wheu ho took . hold of llio steel supports with which all such ladders rre braced. Tho" ladder/ it' "" turned, out, was in contact with a naked' livo wire, carrying electric-light .current, and M'LeAn by his net mode the earth circuit complete. ...... INSTANTLY KILLED. nis comrades and tlia spoof-alois wer« horrified to hear a shriek, and lie was killed 011 the instant. While lie remained in contact _wil.li the ladder and the ground none of his friends could go to his assistance, for the same fate would have 1»fallen anyone who touched him. fjo soop as 110 could ):o leloased, the brigade men, who aro trained in ambulance'" duties,' tried the usual methods to restoro ..niima-. lion, aiid Doctors Herbert and "Pollen ' ennio in answer to nn urgent summons. They also tried artificial respiration, but , without avail. It was their opinion that death must liavo been instantaneous, and quilo painless. ; . Very shortly after it was known with certainty that life was extinct, the body of the unfortunate man was. taken to thft morgue, where an inquest will be held at 2.30 this afternoon, HOW IT HAPPENED. How it came about that-llio ladder was . ; carrying a current is not known with certainty. There are two light current mains in the street, a high tension wira anil a low tension wire. The low tension wire under ordinary circumstances.!? not ; dangerous, and it is unguarded by any, insulation. The high tension wire is" ' dangerous, and it is insulated. It is thought that the fire burned off the insulation, and that in some way a contact was made by the dangerous wire Willi the naked low-tension wire,'against V which the ladder,was resting. As soon as , tin! contact with fcnrth was made complete the current ran along the low-ten-sion wire, down the ladder, and so to the unfortunate man. TWO OTHERS IN PERIL. Two other firemen .wore'at'work lip fli«i ladder, nnd they anpoariid to be. in ini- 1 minent danger untillho contact could bo removed. They, .were ordered not.,, io move, and they remained in their apparently perilous position up tho escape ■ for some minutes. ■■■■■• The deceased, William M'Lean, is a married man. 35 years of age, and lie leaves a widow and two young children.: He .joined:-the'-Fire Brigade as a volun- J teer in August,, 1899, and, in November of the . same year 110 joined tho norma-, lient'stntfof the brigade. At the time of ' tho accident he was the offiper in 'cluirsoof ; the Ncvctown Station, where, ho had been : for somo years.

"An enthusiastic fireuiiul, one of the host," wns the character given him by : Five Simerint endent O'Brien, when speak-' ihg of the snd occurrence to a Dominiok reporter .last vight. ~ "DANGER-AND WE MUST FACE IT.'* "No, gloves would not help onr men at work," said Inspector O'Brien lust night in reply to a suggest (an that men on ladders might bo equipped with rubber gloves for greater safety. "Our work is dangerous work, and bad as, these- accl--dents are, (hey will happen.from .time.:to.*'?j timo,. ,Wo aro taking risks all the time. , t and wo. never -.know: wheiu.it's .'going,,to" get any of us. Wo have accidents of a ; minor.,sort at nearly every,'fire',~but .wu.> take.; 110 notice of, them.;, .They arp. in day's-ivork.'. Thore -is.-a network;-of. 'wires. overhead in some, parts > of,-, the city,<uid,Y»i no liavo to push our-laddersuin through."";; them somehow. A fireman con t-..Vait t0..,." clear things away before ho, sets to. work. Wo must get to work quickly; otherwise there, is nothing left for us (o save. There ' is always : danger, and-wo must face-it." • THE FIRST FIRE-HATAITAI. Tho brig.vdo were called out to deal with! two fires early on Sunday morning. The first practically destroyed: ill'. S. ,W. CopeV store in Moxham Avenue, Ilataitai, and the second did very "seribus damage to a three-storyed wooden building in Manners Street, owned by Mr. Morgan Grace and occupied ,by A. Walling, tobacconist, F. . Gurney, •-basket-malier, Miss M. Cooper, florist,' the Sanitarium Health Food Cafe, G.- P. Hannn, sign writer and advertising contractor, and. ; Richard Alexander, billiard saloon proprietor. A carpenter's shop, occupied by Henry E. Manning, at, the. rear of the building, facing Ellis Lane, was also destroyed. It. was 2.43 a.m. when the brigade got (ho rail from Hataitai; The'buildiiitf 'iit'"'" which Mr. Cope carries 011 his business is a one-storyed rambling wooden - 'i, ing, and the firo was already.. burnimr,,,; briskly when tho brigade, arrived.' 1 hoy. .i were able to save a new wooden, Ijnil^lijiß,.; adjoining, but tho central portion .of . Cope's main building wps ..burned-., right n out, and the rest of it was .■ badly , damaged. The building was' owned. 'Jiy'.'l, Mr. Moorehniise, of Messrs Moorehoiit-t, ~,; and lladlield. The stock was insured .foi.. .' .£IOBO in tho. Standard Office.. THE MANNERS STREET FjRE, Tho brigade were delayed. at that fira until nearly .1 o'clock, and none of tho men bad got to bed before they wer<v summoned again to (lie Manners Street firo nt 5.11 a.m. .The. ..alarm had , Iwey,, , given by the policeman on duty, and lie v had not been able to discover llie actual Feat of the fire before the brigade arrived. Tho complete lighting equipment in . the station was taken out, but the lire proved a vexatious one to combat. Presently it was found that (he main scat of tho, firs —then like a roaring furnace—was the carpenter's shop at the rear, which had to bo ' approached from Ellis Street. This shop is connected or attached to the top floor or the main building bv a covered stairway, which acted as a flue, and tho fuiines lea lit up into the top floor in a flash. The fire-, -~ men could not fight tho thuhes on. the '■ stairs, and they had to attack.them .from... tho front by way of the main building. Two ladders were erected in front—one, in the immediate front of the burningV. building, and one in tho centre of the Dor,. .. minion Private Hotel. This latter was placed to allow tile fire to .be attacked. . from the roof of tho hotel, where a squad. : of men were set to. work. It was after the.forces had been thus disposed that Inspcotor O'Brien called M'Lean and told'liim to get up on the roof and come down-and report how things looked from up there, lie was on his way when he was killed, as already described. Meantime the carpenter's shop had gone, the stairway was destroyed, the roof had gone, and the top flat, used for a billiard saloon, had been gutted. The tables wero totally destroyed. The second floor- was more or less damaged by heat, smoke, and water, and the ground floor rns dau::Cod by water anil smoke merely. INSURANCES. The Insurances' were difficult' 'o discover vesterdoy, and wore not all available. Tho lutilding was insured, but.the. only, risk that could lie awrthinen'' w,is <uYe,' for ,-t'IUOO held by the Sun oHlee. The of the carpenter's ■-lioii were insured for .440(1 in the Commercial Union. Mr. Walling has a policy of .€l5O over hi? tobacconisl's stock, in. the Guardian office; Mr. flurue.v. baskt'tmakor, is insured for .Clflfli in (lie Victoria .office; mid Miss .Cooper,': ' florist, for .£2OO in the Australian Alii- 1 "- iince. Mr. Ilnnim and the proprietors of - , the cafe were uninsured;