SIX PERSONS BURNT TO DEATH.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1040, 28 May 1883, Page 2

SIX PERSONS BURNT TO DEATH.

A telegram from Beechworth, in the Melbourne Age, gives the following particulars of a heartrending occurrence of which we have had brief mention by cable;— A most heartrending calamity occurred at about 3 o’clock on Sunday morning; May sth, at Sutton, a small mining hamlet situated near Hillsborough, and about 14 miles from Beechworth. It appears that shortly after 3 o’clock in (he morning a boy and girl, neither more than nine years of age, the children of Jean Baptiste. Coupin, a Frenchman, roused a miner named M’Gill, residing about 300 yards from their house, and informed him that their house was on, fire, and that their father had carried them out of the burning house, and they thought that he had been burnt to death while trying to save her mother. M’Gill quickly hastened to the spot, and was horrified at the harrowing spectacle which met his gaze. There, lying together in the smouldering remains of the house, were the charred corpses of Coupin, his wife, a little girl about three years of age, and an infant about one year old. He rushed to the house of one Antonie Sbambegroon, and despatched him to Yackandandah for the police, and also for medical assistance. On returning to the children he found that the poor little girl, who had with her brother heroically walked along a dark and difficult road for3oo yards to M’Gill’s house, had succumbed to the frightful burns she bad receiyed, her body being almost completely charred. The little boy was also dreadfully burned. His wounds were, however, dressed, and he nobly recounted his awful experiences before death put an end also to his sufferings. The heroic conduct of these little children is almost beyond belief, and cannot fail to excite universal sympathy. The cause of the fire is a mystery, the only information beaiing on the point being the statement of the little boy that his father made a fire to make some tea for his mother, who was sick, but, from his statement it is not possible to fix the hour when the fire was made. . _ At the inquest the following evidence was given by James McGill. He deposed that between 2 and 3 o’clock on Sunday morning he was aroused by hearing a child calling his name. After lighting a candle he went out and saw Albert and Louisa Coupin. He asked thejn what they wanted, and the boy replied, “ You.” He asked, “ What is the matter?” and the reply was, “ Our house is burnt.” He then asked, “ Where is your father ?” and the boy replied, “He is burnt, too. I know he is burnt, because after he came out with Louisa he went in again to save my mother, and I called him twice but he did not answer.” The girl was quite naked, and the boy only had a flannel shirt on, which .was partially burned. He was afraid to touch the children because he could see strips of skin hanging off their bodies, and he asked them to follow him into the house. Oil was then applied to the burns, and they were put to bed.