FIRE TRAGEDY

Hokitika Guardian, 1 July 1930, Page 3

FIRE TRAGEDY

WOMEN VICTIMS,

TRAPPED IN FIFTH STOREY

(.Australian Press Association)

SYDNEY, June 30

ti Wlijlo thousands of people were leaving theij- Business. homeward bound this evening, a fire occurred in Bathurst Street in- the busiest part of. Sydney. It was' in the fourth storey of the Vauxhall Chambers, which were well alight when suddenly the caretaker’s wife and daughter, Mrs Miller, aged 49, and Miss Rosaline' Miller, aged 19, appeared at a fifth storey window shrieking ' hysterically for, help. The firemen, who were promptly on the scene, observed that the. women’s clothing and hair were Well alight, and they decided to hold .a. large-canvas tarpaulin for them to jump into. ’ The daughter, Rosalie, " either leapt or fell, being like adiving torch. TJu 1 - fortunfately she struck a projection, which deflected her descent.-She landed on the edge of the canvas, and she struck the street heavily, .after a 70ft drop.

The girl, died in a few minutes. The tragic affair was witnessed by a thousand citizens. The caretaker’s wife of an adjoining 'building, interviewed, said that she saw the mother and daughter ablaze from head to foot, clinging to one another, in the bathroom, where,, apparently, they were driven when the. flames Irenesith. „tlioin....luid— apparently cut off their retreat... She also saw people in a neighbouring building trying to throw ropes- to the Millers, but none was sufficiently lolig to roach the objective. The fourth and fifth stories of the Vauxhall Chambers were gutted-. ■

Due to the. courageous, conduct of Fireman Lind, who climbed, .'into . the burning caretaker’s- quarters, through the roof, Mrs Miller was rescued alive. She is now in the hospital in u critical condition.