FATAL FIRE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1754, 20 November 1917, Page 3

FATAL FIRE.

. THREE LIVES LOST. Christchurch, Yesterday. A disastrous fire, involving loss of life, occurred early this morning in a boardinghouse and diningroom, know r n as the Silver Grid, suitated in Manchester Street, near the railw T ay station. The main efforts of the brigade were devoted to saving the lives of the inmates. The bodies of the dead and injured were carried to the balcony and lowered to the pavement. The burning of the only staircase in a narrow wooden structure cut off escape to Ihe ground floor, the only means of escape for the inmates being a couple of fire-escapes at the back of the building, or through the front windows. To go through the windows was deemed suicidal, as the flames were surging upwards and the glass in the verandah below was a trap. Men -went frantic with fear and burns, and gruesome scenes were witnessed as inmates leaped from the front windows to the verandah and smashed through the glass, cutting themselves. Some of them stumbled along shrieking and groaning in panic. THOSE WHO PERISHED. Those who perished in the flames were: — An elderly man named F. W. Hatch. A young woman named Mrs Elsie Stack, employed at the boardinghouse. A young man named Thomas Smith, employed at Skelton and Frostick’s boot factory. THE INJURED. The list of injured is as follows: Mrs John Pereival Smith, wife of the lessee, severely burned and cut. Her condition is critical. William Vincent, aged 35, slightly burned. David Moore Arthur, aged 66, severely burned. George William Spicer, aged 57, slightly burned. Ted Gledhill, aged 23, severely burned, and suffering from shock. William Leeney, aged 50, severely cut on the legs. John Pereival Smith, aged *lO, severely cut on the right hand and ■wrist. George Sullivan, aged 26, severely burned and cut on the neck. Henry Herbert Beer, 45 years of age, severely burned and cut about the face and body, and suffering from slight shock. MYSTERIOUS ORIGIN OF FIRE. An air of mystery surrounds the origin of the lire, which had a good hold before the alarm was given, and appears to have started upstairs, near the front of the building. There were eighteen or twenty persons sleeping in the house. Few escaped without injury of some kind. Fortunately, a good Avater supply Avas available, and the lire was confined to the boardinghouse, though the adjoining buildings and contents Avere damaged. The building Avas insured for £1,525 in the Union Office.