REMARKABLE ESCAPE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 84, 3 January 1935, Page 7

REMARKABLE ESCAPE

Boxer Falls Forty Feet A man had a remarkable escape from serious injury one night recently when he fell 40 feet from a building in Castlereagh Street, Sydney. While a dance conducted by the Friends of the Soviet Union was in progress in Leigh House, William Martin, a boxer, heard a friend calling for help outside the building. Not realising that he was on an upper floor of the building lie got through an open window and fell into space between Leigh House and a neighbouring building, 40 feet below. In his fall he fortunately missed numerous projecting bars between the two buildings. When the alarm was given there was a great commotion in the hall. Some of the dancers rushed to fire brigade headquarters nearby to obtain ladders, as the basement between the buildings was completely enclosed. An officer was sent to investigate, but in the meantime ropes had been obtained and both men were hauled up the side of the building. Martin, in explaining his actions to the police, said that he heard someone in distress, calling out “Bill.” He immediately went to the man’s aid, but in the darkness missed his footing on a parapet and fell. The night officer at the fire brigade informed Central District Ambulance, who rushed Martin to Sydney Hospital. There it was found that he had suffered apparently only abrasions to the back.

The police were unable to discover how the first man got into the basement. It is presumed that he dropped something out of the window and climbed down the side of the building to retrieve it.