FIRE TRAGEDY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 35, 4 May 1927, Page 10

FIRE TRAGEDY

INQUEST OPENED LEAP FROM WINDOWS 13 BOARDERS IN HOUSE Press Association. NAPIER, Tuesday. The circumstance.'! of the deaths of William Robison ?nd John Thomas Webber, victims of the Napier fire tragedy, are being inquired into by the district coroner, Mr. R. W. Dyer, S.M. Senior -Sergeant Powell represent the police. Mary Bruce, wife of the proprietor of the Shakespeare Boarding-house, stated that on the night of the fire there were about 13 boarders on the books. Webber had been boarding at the house for over two years and was a man about 46 years of age. Robison had only been a boarder for seven weeks and she understood he came front England. NO FIRE ESCAPES On Saturday a fire had been burning in an open fireplace in the sittingroom and in the kitchen coal and coke were burned. All the people who slept in the house on Sunday night were accounted for except Robison and Webber. There were no fire escapes. The Coroner: How many staircases were there? Mrs. Bruce: Only one. The Coroner: Then if the staircase was on fire there was no provision for escape? Mrs. Bruce: Only by the windows. Senior Sergeant Powell: How did those from upstairs escape? Mrs. Bruce: They had to jump from the windows. Mr. Bruce helped one old gentleman out. BOARDER’S EVIDENCE Joseph Henry Gillet, platelayer, employed by the Napier Harbour Board, stated that he retired to bed at 8.30 p.m. on Sunday and was aroused next morning between 4.30 and 4.35 o’clock by the crackling of the wood burning in the main building. He jumped out of bed and shouted “fire” on several occasions. The people on the hill at the back heard him shouting. He searched for the fire alarm, but went down the wrong road, and so returned to the whare to save the few things he had there. As far as he could see the fire started in the centre near the staircase. Some of those upstairs were escaping as he ran round to find the alarm. One man was sliding down some sheets tied together. He heard screaming at the back of the building. DISCOVERY OF REMAINS Henry George Webber, an employee of the Wairoa Freezing Works, stated that John Webber was his brother. His age was 62 years, and as far as he knew he was a single man. Constable T. Wilton said that in the course of half an hour the house was completely destroyed. He found that two of the boarders were missing. Their remains were discovered in the debris. The inquest has been adjourned until Monday.