BLAZING PERAMBULATOR

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 182, 22 October 1927, Page 9

BLAZING PERAMBULATOR

MOTHER’S AWFUL ORDEAL SPARK FROM OPEN RANGE (From Our Own Correspondent) TAUMARUNUI, Friday An inquest was held to-day, before Mr. A. SS. Laird, coroner, concerning the death of the. infant, Phyllis May Sumpter, as the result of burns received on October 17. The child’s mother said the baby was left in a perambulator near the fire in the kitchen, while she went outside to feed the fowls and hang out the washing. Before going outside she built up the fire in the range. It was not drawing too well, and she put some light wood on and a shovelful of coal on top. To assist the draught she left the bottom half of the range door open. When she returned, 20 minutes later, the perambulator was in flames. She was almost paralysed by* shock. She ran outside and sent her son, aged nine, for assistance. The only cause of the fire she could think of was the lightness of the coal, which was almost slack. Some of it must have sparked out on to a light shawl and flannelette blanket covering the baby. James Burkett. grocer’s assistant, said he went to the assistance of Mrs. Sumpter and rescued the baby from the perambulator, which was then a mass of flames. Dr. Welby Fisher said the baby whs so badly burned that its case was hopeless. The coroner returned a verdict «*f accidental death from shock caused by burns.