TRAGIC DEATH

Hokitika Guardian, 3 September 1930, Page 5

TRAGIC DEATH

OF THREE CHILDREN. PET DOG’S EFFORT. (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.] (Received this day at 1.0 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 2. Despite the heroism of two brothers, three Anglo-Chinese children under eight years of age were incinerated in Liverpool’s Chinatown. The family occupied a two-storey tenement building. The. father. Han Yen, was absent when the thirteen year’s old Robert Yen’s. pet dog “Spot” aroused him by barking at midnight. Robert woke hi«s mother who is an English woman. Both ran downstairs and found the kitchen on the ground floor blazing fiercely. The mother rushed for the fire engine while Robert went back in an effort to rescue his three brothers and two sisters. (The flames drove him back, after which he clung to the window sill whence he Was rescued badly burned. Meailwllile tt teii year’s brother, Willie, iii the smoke filled room picked tip the baby, broke a window and held It out in the fresh air until a fireman climbed up a fire escape and rescued them, Willie said wait a minute and ran.back and fetched another infant. The fireman carried both down and then returned to rescue Willie, who was clinging to a hot waterspout, , ;■ Another hero, Ah Sim, who was blind, despite his burning clothes stood at a window shouting “save children,” but by then two boys and a girl were trapped. The firemen found the charred corpses, also the body of the dog “Spot,” which Willie sayi3 was tugging at the bedclothes endeavouring to rouse the unconscious children. .