TRAGIC FIRE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 711, 11 December 1933, Page 5

TRAGIC FIRE

(Press Assn.-

french duke burned COUNTRY HOUSE DESTROYED AND GUESTS TRAPPED IN FLAMES FIRE BRIGADES POWERLESS

— By Telegraph— Ccpyrlght).

(Rec. 7.10 p.m.) London, Dec. 9. Tragedy overtook a week-end house party before a projected hunt when the premier French dxike and crack cavalry mtan, Le Due de la Trennqille, aged 23, and Captain j. Rodney, brother of Baron Rodney, lost their lives ias a result of a fire destroying The Herony, !\Vhitechurch, the home of the milliohaire, Mr. L. J. MjcCormlick..! The duke, who was unfamiliar with th'e house, called out, after calling to others, that he was going down the staircase, but was trapped on the landing and his body was charred beyond recognition. Captain Rodney, who mangled his hand while smashing window panes, died in hospital after jumping 20 feet from a window with' his wife. His wife also was sent to hospital with a fraetured spine which necessitated an operation. She is now in plaster of Paris and is in •& critical condition. JMr- McCormick's wife and other guests escaped in their night clothes. After Mrs. McCormick discovered the fire in an upper bedroom at 3 a.m. she roused the inmates, but the house rapidly .became an inferno. Firemen rescued one maid and another, after knotting sheets, slid down a water pipe from the top floor. The fire brigade was powerless despite an adjacent river. | Flames frustraJted a chaffeur's gallant elfort to rescue the duke.