BURNED TO DEATH

Hokitika Guardian, 20 May 1933, Page 6

BURNED TO DEATH

FATEFUL SCREEN MESSAGE

wIFE’S RETURN TO. TRACEDY

A simple announcement Hashed on .the screen of a picture theatre' at Witverely, Sydney, recently, sent a voting' tviio and her four-vear-old son home to a ghastly tragedy.

Led by groans into the sfinoßeifillcd hallway of a house, Mr Alfred, Walters was horrified to find that in the centre of a blazing mass which fell at his feet wa,s a man.,All clothing except.charred fragments of,,a. shirt and! coat were burned from bis. body, yet the man was conscious! The victim, Cecil Kay Alcock, aged. 30, died in' hospital at 2 a.m. That lie survived till’then is remarkable.

“Sgoing smoke immediately" after hearing ;groans,” says Mr Walters, “l leaped the fence and rushed through the hack hallway, to see' a mass of flames coming toward me, ..and then tlie charred figure of a man fell almost at : my feet.” Answering Mr Walters’ | shout, Mr .John Buxton telephoned for mi, ambulance, Mr Walters meanwhile covering the burning figure with a 'blanket', and then searching the house in case children were in danger On a lounge settee wo re two blazing cushions, which' told their- own story of a man whose clothes had become ignited while he was dosing. Although ambulance men had to extract still-| burning ••fragments of doth from Mr | •' leof'k’s terrible burned back, be was j conscious' when placed in the ambulance

No. one,knew-the victim’s game,, for the family were only 'recent arrivals at the house, and the-police decided ,to hash a message on the' local theatre screen, asking lor occupants of the house to return.