A CITY ABLAZE

Hokitika Guardian, 19 November 1928, Page 6

A CITY ABLAZE

OCCUPANTS’ TERRIFYING

EXPERIENCE

[By Telegraph, Per Press Association

CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 17

Intensive damage was done to the upper storey of the* County Chamber of Commerce buildings by fire tin's morning. The damaged portion was that occupied by the caretaker and his family while water saturated many offices on the ground floor, including the offices of the Kurdoyers’ Association of Christchurch, the Christchurch r-'l i/ens’ Association, and the Canterbury Industrial Association and Chamber of Commerce, it is expected that it will the some days before these offices will again be fit for use. The amount of da maw. which is fairly extensive, is not yet ascertainable, hut it will all be covered by insurance. The building is insured by the Chamber of Commerce in the South British Office for £4OOO, and the contents for £BOO. The caretaker and his family had a terrifving and unenviable cxnerionee. The caretaker. Air W. Dow, was confined to Ids bed as the result of an accident, lint on being wakened by clouds of smoke in the room, he aroused Ids wife and two girls and a hoy. When Dow opened the doer ol the kitchen, which led to the stairway volumes of smoke and flame poured through, cutting off this avenue of escape a younger girl, 1-1 years of age. was burned about the shoulder and arm hv the flames, which belched from the stairway. Dow found his way to the roof throned) a manhole in Cue passage <-r>i!ing seeking a means of escape for his family. lie and his daughter were finally rescued by the iFire Brigade, by moans of a ladder from the roof, while his wife and other children made their escape hv means of a ladder from a bedroom window.

Dow was later re , ”ove >1 to hospital, but the child who ’"'l ' eon burned suffered little ill effects from her injury.