HOAX ENDED LUCK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22341, 28 May 1947, Page 7

HOAX ENDED LUCK

FIREMAN KILLED FIRST DAY ON DUTY LONDON, May 10. Young Allred Barlow, aged 25, put on his new fireman’s tunic, with the ribbons earned during his five years’ service in the navy, and walked with his wife to the fire station for his first day in his new career with the National Fire Service. Tlie sun was shining and he and his wife were looking forward to their first baby coming in a fortnight’s time. The Barlows had always believed in the family luck. “A good omen,” said Alfred's father, watching the sun as he took the grandchildren away to a fair. Certainlv it looked like one of the Barlows’ better days when Mr. Barlow senior won a shining doll’s pram and other prizes. But at ten minutes past three the Barlows’ day crashed. A fire alarm sounded in Bow. An engine from Brunswick Road Fire Station answered, with Fireman Barlow on board. Leaning against the fireescape buckling on his equipment as the engine swept round a corner, eager for his first job on his first day, Fireman Barlow was thrown off. He fell on his head and 10 minutes after reaching hospital was dead. His wife reached his bedside too late. The fire call was a false alarm. Father’s Anger. Home from the fair, with his granddaughter’s doll’s pram Mr. Barlow, sen., learned that his youngest son had been killed by a hoax. ‘For just half an hour,” he said, “I would like to tell this person what he has done to our family. I wish him no physical harm. I don't think I'd even like him to go to prison. “But I’d like to tell him how he has wrecked a family’s happiness for good. He wouldn’t forget after I’d finished talking to him. "This was my son's first real job after five years as a chief stoker In the navy. He was as excited as a schoolboy about his new job.” Fire Service officials said there was little hope of tracing the hoaxer.