HEROISM AT A FIRE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1003, 1 October 1912, Page 4

HEROISM AT A FIRE.

THRIDDING RESCUES.

Thrilling scenes attended a fire which broke out recently at the Grand Restaurant, Deeds, and imprisoned seven women in the upper storeys.

The fire was discovered shortly after five o’clock, and a policeman endeavoured to rouse the sleeping inmates by ringing the trout door bell. He succeeded in attracting the attention of the housekeeper, Mrs Robinson, who in turn woke up Miss Carr, the manageress. Five barmaids were sleeping in a room below Miss Carr’s, and despite the fact that dense volumes of smoke and hot air were pouring up the stair-case, she made a gallant attempt to reach their dormitory and give the alarm. She crept down the stairs on hands and knees, but half-way down was overcome by the smoke, and had to be helped back to the top floor by Mrs Robinson. The girls were aroused by the concerted shouts of the compositors employed at a newspaper office opposite. Rushing to the door, Miss Brotherick, the head barmaid, was met by a dense cloud of smoke. Escape in that direction was impossible, and the girls ran to the windows, screaming for help. All this had happened in less than three minutes, and the fire brigade had uot yet arrived. Flames were bursting from the windows of the storey immediately below, and the floor of the room became so hot that the girls had to climb out of the windows-

Some oi them remained clinging to the sills, while others scrambled on a ledge about eighteen inches wide which ran round the building sixty feet above the pavement. Here they remained, clad only in their night attire, crying piteously for help. The crowd below built up great piles of newspapers under the windows in case any of the girls should fall.

In the meantime, Miss Carr and Mrs Robinson had made their way by another staircase to the first floor. Here, in one of the back corridors they were met by clouds of smoke, and in the confusion they lost each other. Eventually Miss Carr forced her way to one of the first-floor windows and climbed on a ledge which ran underneath. Pursued by dense clouds of smoke, she crawled along the ledge until her progress was checked at the corner of the building. The fire brigade arrived at this moment, and escapes were quickly run up to the top storey, and to the ledge where Miss Carr was perched precariously. To the surprise of the firemen who went to her aid, Miss Carr forcibly resisted his efforts to save her. She refused to be brought down until she had been back to see il she could find Mrs Robinson. After some argument, the fireman gave way, and the crowd below watched them crawl slowly along the ledge and disappear through the smoking window. A few minutes later they returned without Mrs Robinson, who, as a matter ot fact, had safely returned to the top floor, and had already been brought to the ground with the five barmaids.

Sergeant Horn, the fireman who went to Miss Carr’s rescue, declared atterwards that she was the bravest woman he had ever met. “Some of the corridors we traversed,” he said to an Express representative, “were so thick with smoke and hot air that we had to lie on our faces and crawl. Yet Miss Carr never once showed the white feather, and would uot come back until she had satisfied herself that Mrs Robinson had not been overcome by the smoke in the corridor where she had missed her.” None of the women were injured. They were wrapped in policemen’s capes, and sheltered at an hotel close by,