A DREADFUL FATE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 895, 22 September 1910, Page 4

A DREADFUL FATE.

BURNED TO DEATH. CASTLE DESTROYED BY FIRE. London, August 30. Meulough Castle, Co. Galway, the ancestral resideuce of Sir Valentiue and Lady Blake, was burned to the ground on Tuesday. Their daughter, Miss Blake, was burned to death, and uo trace of her remains has yet been found. A servant, named Miss Earley, in trying to escape from the Castle, jumped from the roof of the north wing, and was killed instantaneously, and a fellow-servant, named Miss Brown, who jumped with her, sustained such dreadful injuries that her life is despaired of. Sir Valentiue and Lady Blake were in Dublin for the last few days, and were expected home on Tuesday. They are both immensely popular in Galway, and the disaster which has overtaken them is universally deplored. The Castle was beautifully situated on the shores of Lough Corib, within two miles of Galway, and was a solidly-built structure, flanked by towers at each end, and was covered with ivy. It is completely gutted, and only the outer walls remain, a sad reminder of its ruined beauty. Not a single item of its valuable contents, which included many priceless heirlooms of the family has been saved. The coachman, James Kirwan, who occupied a room on the top story over the hall door, heard the two female servants who were sleeping in the other wing screaming at the top of their voices, and on jumping out of bed and opening the door he was driven back by the inrush of flames and smoke. His room was immediately enveloped, and seeing escape cut off by the staircase, he burst open one of the windows, flung bis clothes out oa the lawn, and, seizing the ivy which covered the entire frontage, succeeded in reaching the ground. The ivy gave way, but he had a sufficiently firm grip of the wall to break the fall. He rushed round to the frontage facing the lake, only to find this portion of the castle enveloped in flames. He then ran round to the fourth side, and was horrified to find the two servants on the roof of the castle. They were screaming, '• For God’s sake, save us.” Behind them the flames were roaring fiercely. Kirwan rushed to the porteris lodge, close at hand and procured assistance, after which he and Ward (the porter) and a man named Faherty from the village of Menlough obtained a ladder and placed it against the wall. Unfortunately, this was ten or twelve feet short, and as the girls were clearly in great agony, from the heat, their skin beginning to peel off, it was decided to place bundles of hay on the ground, and let them jump on it. The hay was quickly placed in position, and the poor girls, still screaming with terror, plunged headlong to the ground, a distance of forty feet. Miss Earley fell on her lace and never spoke afterwards. Miss Browne fell partly on her feet, and was rendered unconscious for a time. On regaining consciousness, she said her back was broken. During all this time there as no word of Miss Blake. Her apartments were apparently the seat of the fire, all attempts to reach her room were fruitless. All the available police cycled out to the castle. At Renmore military depot the fire alarm was sounded, and the whole force of Connaught Rangers, under Major Sarsfield, were quickly on parade, and with their engine hose preceded at the double to the seat of the fire, about five miles distant. The fire appliances of the Urban Council were also requisitioned, and arrived about the same time as the military. But it was. found that there was some defect in,the apparatus which prevented it from working for a time. However, the military engine was in lull working order, and some six lines of hose were playing on the flames. The soldiers’ efforts were futile, as long before either brigade arrived all hopes of saving the premises were abandoned. Efforts were made again and again to find some trace ot Miss Blake’s body, but without success. She had apparently been cremated in the flames.