FIRE TRAGEDY

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 67

FIRE TRAGEDY

OUTBREAK IN HOTEL. FOUR LIVES LOST. GREYMOUTH, May 31. A disastrous fire occurred in the Union Hotel at 5.30 a.m. resulting in the loss of four lives. The names of the deceased are as follows :— DAVID ISBISTER, aged 29, a railway fireman, formerly of Maori Hill, Dunedin. WILLIAM HADDOCK, aged 29, a railway linesman, formerly of Petone. PATRICK PHELAN, aged 29, a barman. EDMUND RYAN, aged 41, a bushman. There were 10 inmates of the building, all of whom were sleeping in the upper storey. Mr James Collogan, the proprietor, and his wife and daughter escaped through a window to an adjoining roof, and the housemaid, Mary Southern, by means of a rope, escaped through a window on the opposite side. John Cosgrove, a railway shunter, anl Michael Deere, a waterside worker, had narrow escapes, being burned slightly before getting through windows. Deere opened the door of his room, and, meeting a blast of flame, he turned and jumped out of the window to the ground with his night attire afire. Cosgrove’s hair was singed off. The alarm was given by the fire brigade superintendent, Mr Patrick Deere, whose house adjoins the hotel, and the brigade made a wonderful save of most of the ' building. It was thought that everybody was out, but after the fire had been mastered it was found that the bodies of Isbister and Phelan were in a passage in the upper storey. One lay at either end, indicating that each of the victims had groped towards an exit. Ryan’s body was in a front room, from which he had sought to escape. Haddock’s body was beside his bed. All the victims had evidently been suffocated, except Phelan, whose body was considerably burned. The structure, a wooden one, was insured for £l2OO in the Phoenix Company and for £6OO in the South British Company. The stock was insured for £4OO in the Phoenix Office, and the furniture for £224 in the same company and for £274 in the South British Company. Two boarders, William Baker, a motorman, and William Ry all, and also a member of the staff, Miss Belle Irvine, were absent from the hotel last night, being out of town, while Thomas Donovan, a boarder, was sleeping in a cottage at the rear. The doors at the ends of the passage on the upper storey were unlocked, and the victims had evidently been partly overcome in their rooms. Isbister and Ryan shared a room and Phelan and Haddock shared another, both at the top of the stairs. Deere, in escaping, narrowly missed a fence.

. DUNEDIN MAN A VICTIM. Mr Isbister was a son of the late Mr David Isbister and Mrs Isbister, of Maori Hill. He entered the railway engine sheds in Dunedin, and later served at Balclutha, Wellington, and Ward, being transferred to Greymouth some eight or nine months ago. He was employed as a driver until recently, but reverted to the position of fireman under the retrenchment scheme lately put into operation by the department. He was a member of the Star Football Club in Greymouth. Mr Isbister is survived by his mother, four brothers, and a married sister.