FATAL FIRE AT FENDALTON

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2574, 23 September 1915, Page 7

FATAL FIRE AT FENDALTON

'• : > . TWO VICTIMS. .1 !—r■—■—,By Telegraph.—Press Association. Ghrlstchuroh,' September 22. ' 'A fatal fire occurred at Fendalton at .10 o'clock last evening, when a new two-storyed bungalow in Idras Road was destroyed. The.victims were Mrs. Cookson," aged about sixty, and her granddaughter, aged two years, daughter of Mr. F. W. Freeman, surveyor. Mrs. Cookson,.' a well-known resident, has been living with her son, Mr. J. B. Cookson, who left the house at 7 o'clock, when everything was safe. The house was full of suffocating smoke when the neighbours discovered tho, blaze, but an attempt was made to remove the furniture. _ None of tho helpers knew at that time that there was anybody inside .the house. They had only been at work for a little time when the flames broke through with a roar, ; and the whole building was enveloped. \ . It was not till Mr. and Mrs. Freeman and Mr- Cookson arrived that it Was ascertained that the house was occupied; and it was then much too late to attempt to effect a rescuo. ,Tho origin of the outbreak is a mystery.

VERDICT AT THE INQUEST. Christchurch, September 22. 'An inquest' on the victims of last night's fatal-fire at Fendalton wafl held to-night. No new facts were adduced, and a verdict of accidental death was returned.