THE FIRE TRAGEDY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 229, 24 June 1944, Page 8

THE FIRE TRAGEDY

Brigade Faced With Hard Task CHILDREN OVERCOME BY SMOKE The condition of Mrs. lan B. Ewart, who was admitted to the Wellington Public Hospital suffering from burns and shock, after an attempt to save, her two children, who lost their lives m a hie at their home in Abel Smith Street on Thursday night, was reported last night to be satisfactory. The fire was apparently first noticed bv patients in the Bethany Maternity Hospital, Kensington Street, at the rear of the Ewart home. They observed the glare of leaping flames, which already had a good hold, and heard a woman screaming. A hospital sister was notified and she telephoned the central fire station at 9.56 p.m. Almost immediately another alarm came through from a taxidriver who saw flames at the front door as he was passing. Within about four minutes the first of three engines dispatched from the station was at the scene. By that time the interior of the building, including the only stairqpse, was a blazing inferno, flames were bursting through the roof, and thick, black smoke was pouring out. Superintendent C. A. Woolley, of the fire brigade, said yesterday that the two children would have died of suffocation long before the flames reached the bathroom in which they had sought, refuge. No one could live more than a minute or two in the terrific volume of black smoke quickly generated in buildings of that construction. , . The first fire officer on the scene did not wait for a brigade ladder. Seizing a household ladder on the property, he gained the flat top of a veranda underneath the children's window. When he smashed it in he was driven back by a searing blast of smoke and flame. Another fireman who attempted to enter was badly burned about the neck. Water was played into the room till it was possible for two men. equipped with respirators, to enter. They searched, mainly by touch, in a room still tilled with almost impenetrable smoke, but the children were not there. When the tire was under control, but not yet out, an other search was made, and Superintendent Woolley found the bodies in the bathroom. ~ The bedroom and bathroom were intercommunicating and were reached by the two arms of a T leading, from the stairs. Outside the bedroom window was the flat top of a veranda, only one end of which was badly burned, and it is believed that if the children had got out there they would have been saved. Awakened from sleep and frightened, they would be unlikely to think of that. They probably attempted to leave the room by the door and gain the stairs, only to be driven back by a blast of hot smoke. It appears that -they then went through the communicating door to try the bathroom exit, but met similar conditions there, and took refuge behind the It is not known definitely how the fire started. It is understood that Mrs. Ewart and her aunt. Miss McLenna , were downstairs, and shortly before 1U o’clock Miss McLennan went to her room on the ground floor and switched on an electric radiator. She then went to be kitchen to boil a kettle. Suddenly all the lights went ouf and flames burst throughout the house. \ , The opinion has been expressed that the radiator did not cause the lire, as there was insufficient time for the flames to spread between the time it was switched on and the lights went out. It was considered more likely that the fire had been burning for some time in another part of the house and the lights went out when wires were burned througir, fusing the whole system. Superintendent Woolley could not confirm this opinion, but he said that in certain circumstances, in old wooden buildings lined with scrim and paper, large areas could be well ablaze in only a few minutes and the only internal stairway could be cut off in the first minute or two by the heavy volume of smoke quickly generated. . . . He expressed the opinion that, in such buildings, occupants of upper floors should not be expected to negotiate smoke-filled passages giving access either to stairways or external fire escapes in order to get clear of the building in case of emergency. The most that could be reasonably expected of them, waking from sleep with their vitality at its lowest ebb, to find themselves trapped in n veritable inferno, was to open the bedroom window and step out onto a platform type of fire escape, giving alternative access to staircase ladders leading to safety. For their own protection occupants of such premises should see that escapes such as he had described were provided. An inguest into the deaths of the two children John Matheson Ewart, aged 10, and Janet Mary Ewart, aged 7, was opened yesterday before the coroner, Mr. Meflish, and adjourned after evidence of identification had been taken. The funeral service for the children will take place at 2.30 this afternoon at St. Peter’s Church, Willis Street, and the burial will be at Karori. The service will be conducted by the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt. Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland, and the Vicar of St. Peter’s, the Ven. Archdeacon W. Bullock.