FATAL SYDNEY FIRE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1847, 2 July 1918, Page 3

FATAL SYDNEY FIRE

FATHER’S TRAGIC STORY.

MONEY RAINS ON FIREMEN,

Particulars of the fatal five in Sussex Street, Sydney, eax’ly in the morning of Friday last, when two sons, aged 21 and 16, and two daughters, aged 11 and 7, of Bernard Himmelferb, a second-hand dealer, were suffocated during the burning of their house, are given in Sydney files just to hand. According to Mr Himmelferb’s tragic story, the whole family went to bed at about 8 p.m. on Thursday. “At midnight,” said the narrator, “I was awakened by my wife’s cries, and she told me that she smelt smoke, although she believed at the time that the fire was in the house adjoining the shop. I got out of bed and awakened the two boys, who were sleeping in the back room with me. I then went to the front bedroom, and, taking the girls, brought four downstairs. My wife followed mo, and when we reached (he ground Hoor, Ihe shop was well alight. “Opening the dining-room window, which looks out over (he backyard, I (old my wife and children (hat I was going to rouse neighhours and secure help. I jumped out of (lie window on to a small sited, and then got into (he yard out of the'back gate. I had no idea (lien (hal the (ire was so serious.” It wits after he had left the house that the grim tragedy occurred. “My wife,” continued Himmelf ■!•!), “must have opened the diningroom shop door, and a draught being thus created, the (lames grew and quickly travelled to the room where she and the children were standing. Then I think they must have gone upstairs in an attempt to secure the money.’ 1 Mrs TTiinmelferh must have gone to die front bedroom to get £I,OOO in notes which were in the wardrobe. But the flames had speedily reached die staircase and (op landing, and becoming terrified, she got out of die bedroom window and jumped to the footway below, a distance of about 15ft. In so doing she fractured her wrist and injured her back, necessitating hospital treatment.

After the father left the house (he elder son, Bernard, must have gone to his own room in order to get the money which was hidden there. The other children followed him, and when the firemen entered the house and went upstairs they found the four of them huddled up in the corner under the bed. They were dead.

The elder hoy was burnt severely, hut his brother, Jacob, and the two girls, were suffocated by the smoke.

It would never have been imagined that the shop housed a small fortune. Yet after the tire had been subdued, £2,579 7s was found and was taken charge of by the police. This money was made up as follows: —Notes, £1,351; gold, £509; silver, £719 ss; copper, 2s Id. Silver rained on the firemen as they were fighting the flames. The coiling and floor above them burned through in places, and suddenly it rained florins and half-crowns. Many were picked up there and then, but it was not until after the flames had been got under control that it was discovered that the place was a regular treasure trove. Underneath the floor of the back room the sovereigns and half-sover-eigns were located. They were in an old handkerchief in an old leather handbag. The notes were in the false bottom of a chest of drawers in the front upstairs bedroom. They were done up in neat parcels, and were in various small leather bags. None of them suffered as a result of the fire. The silver, piles of it, was elsewhere. Half-crowns, florins, shillings in large numbers, and a few sixpences and threepenny piece* were recovered. It was in ladies’ handbags and calico bags. Some of it was under the flooring of the upstairs portion of the place, while the remainder was found under beds and among the debris. After the fire, two bags, containing £359 2s and £ll9 15s respectively, were sent oft* to the police station. Each was so heavy that two policemem were required to carry it,