SERIOUS FIRE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3052, 13 April 1917, Page 8

SERIOUS FIRE

HOTEL GUTTED . A MAN BURNED TO DEATH FIRE BRIGADE'S GOOD WORK At 4.48 a.m. yesterday the central station of the fire brigade received a call from the porter of the Hotel Cecil to the effect that the Wellington Hotel the old wooden building on the corner of Molesworth and Sydney Streets — was on lire. Tho report proved to he correct, and by the time the firo was subdued tho hotel had been completely gutted,-not without fatal results. 'Sitting back on liis bed in room No. 10 was found the body of Mr. Patrick Twohill, the billiard-marker at the hotel for over twenty years past, and quite •well known to many people in AVellington. It is surmised that he was in the act of getting dressed when ho was overcome by the smoke entering his room, and was suffocated.

The Outbreak Discovered. The fire was discovered by Michael Macarthy, the barman of the hotel. At about' 4.45 a.m. Macarthy, .who sleeps in one of the rooms looking out on to Sydney Street, was awakened by the fierce crackle of flames ill the sitting-room adjoining his room. He got out of bed as quickly as possible, and rushed along the passage's, calling on the boarders and the lessee's family to get up and out as Vie place was on fire. He first rushed along the corridor leading into and through the brick annexe, where he .alarmed Mr. Ryan and his family. Mr. Ryan came back along the passage, and opened the door of tho sitting-room. He was met with a wall of flame and smoke, which at once belched out and set firo to the scrim and paper finish to the passages, which quickly conveyed tho fire the length and breadth of tho hotel. As they retreated b e f° re the blast, they shouted and banged- at the doors. Macarthy is quite sure he gave Twohill (whose room was tho first one to the right or the opposite side of the passage'to the sitting-room and opposite the barman's) sufficient alarm to awaken him to the danger and the position of the deceased when discovered indicated that he had been aroused from his sleep.

" The Brigade's Part. The brigade effected a quick getaway, but long before tho motors had daslied -up tlie Charlotte Street riso the hotel was aflame from one end to the other upstairs, whilst downstairs were still intact as far as could bo judged-. Three leads were soon got to work, ono from Moleswortk Street, ono from Sydney Street, and one was directed so as to cut off as far as was possible,.tho spread of 1 lie fire to a twostoried brick annexe to the hotel at the back, which was, at first, thought to be a separate building altogether. While this work was going on, Superintendent Tait made all the inquiries possible as to tho safety of the inmates. "There must havo been sixteen or eighteen Maoris in tho place," said Superintendent Tait, "and by the time we gob there they were sitting fully dressed, and with their lucgage, blankets, and mattresses, having a korero on the grass lawn of tho grounds of Parliamentary Buildings. The white peoplo who'wero in the hotel escaped in the scantiest garments, but the Maoris ■were fully dressed, oven to collar and ties, and- had saved everything they had with them. This was probably because they wore sleeping on the Molesworth Street side of the house, and the point, farthest away' from tho outbreak of the fire. I asked them at once whether everyone" was out, and the renly was that it was believed they were. I then asked others, until ono man stated that 'the boss' said that everybody was out. From that I concluded that- Evan (the lessee) had ascertained that all the inmates were safe. 'Whether he said so or not I don't know, but'.snon after that the cry was raised that there was a man missing—the bil-liard-marker. I tried to locate the man, hut found it impossible to do so."

A Brave Act. As a matter of fact, Superintendent Tait, when 'informed h« Mr. Wm. Hannafin (lessee'of the Thistle Inn') tliat there was a man missing:, asked'the latter (whom he 'then believed to ho the proprietor of the burning 'hotel') to indicate the room to him, but Hannafm did not venture more than half-way up the stairs. The superintendent went up Pm main stairway to the top. then, crawling on his hands and knees to get breathing fpoce below tbe pall of smoke and heat, he visited five rooms and felt the beds, without result. He learned subsequently that room No. 10, where the deceased was found, was in a different passage altogether—that which ran parallel to Sydney Street. In any case, hurl he known its exact, position he could never havo reached the spot, as that passage was an inferno of flamo and smoke.' Superintendent Tait believes that the man Twohill must have been suffocated before the brigade reached the scene. A Late Alarm. That the alarm came from the Hotel Cecil was remarkable, but when it is known the manner in which it came to be given, the public will be able to judge how slow -people are to think of alarming the brigade in cases of fire. The porter at the Hotel Cecil was commencing his early duties, when he noticed the reflection of a fire, and going 4ut on the landing of the hotel he found to his astonishment, the "Wellington Hotel well ablaze. It struck him that the brigade had not passed, so he rang up the Central Station. That, was the first notification that the brigade received of the fire, and yet dozens of pople must have known about it before the Hotel Cecil porter._ Credit is due to Michael Macartliy for the activitv and coolness he displayed on discovering the fiTe. Had it not been for his promptitude in alarming everyone in the house, there might have been further deaths to record. Mr. Jf. Uvnn has been lessee of the Wellington Hotel for the past fifteen months. Previous to that he was hotel-keeping in Blenheim, and before that again he was the lessee of the Metropolitan Hotel in Molesworth Street. Mr. Ryan loses everything. Ho informed a Dominion reporter that there was no chance to save anything in the wav of furniture. Indeed, all they could find time to do was to snatch a few clothes in which to get out of the burning building. It was a narrow escape for them all. Mr. Ryan's daughters, who slept in the brick building, were able to got out by using the fire escane, and then sealing the billboard in Molesworth Street, from which airv perch they were rescued by the police. The, Late Mr. Twohill. The deceased Patrick Twohill was 74 years of age. He has been part and parcel of the Wellington Hotel for nearly a quarter of a century. Lessees came and lessees went, but Pat Twohill remained a fixture. In his earlier years ho was a hotelkeeper. on the West Coast, and later in Auckland. As a young man on the Coast he is said to have been no mean athlete. He leaves an adult family, of whom Mr. Edward Twohill was on the staff of the Public Works Department; and Mr. Daniel Twohill is a member of the Fvpedition&T.y Force. On*, of his

daughters was at one time not unknown on the concert platform in AVellington. The Insurances. The AVellington Hotel consisted of the building, the largo two-storied wooden building which fronted Sydney and Molesworth Street, which is over forty years old, and" a two-storied brick-built annexe at the back, which is only four yeans .old. Tho wooden building is destroyed, but tho brick portion can be made good. The hotel building, which is the property of Staples and Co., wail insured in the Atlas Company for £2250, whilst the furniture was insured for £500 in the Commercial Union Assurance Office in the name of Messrs. T. and AY. Young, - The Inquest. An inquiry into the circumstances attending the death of Patrick Twohill will be held at the S.M. Court at 9.30 a.m. to-dnv.