THRILLING BLAZE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 291, 29 February 1928, Page 1

THRILLING BLAZE

Trapped Man Leaps to Safety From Blazing Boarding House ONE MAN INJURED FRAMED in r. background of raging fire and smoke, six men jumped for their lives from a two-storeyed building in Eden Crescent early this morning, one suffering a broken leg in consequence. The fire totally destroyed one of the oldest buildings in Auckland.

A WAKENED about 3 a.m., by the * sound o£ breaking glass and the roar of flames, Mr. T. Ellingham, whose bedroom was at the rear of the house and overlooking the kitchen, saw a sheet of flame enveloping the kitchen. He rushed along the corridors, which were filled with dense smoke, and roused the remainder of the occupants, sixteen iu all. Miss Thomas, the only woman on the upper floor, caught together a few clothes and made good her escape by way of the back stairs. The flames then enveloped this means of escape, the front stairs being also well alight. The occupants of the other upper rooms rushed on to the verandah, where the smoke was blinding. A Dalmatian, Mr. Trubovich, who occupied the room above the front door, made a jump for safety. He suffered a bad fall and was taken to hospital with a broken leg.

The remainder of the men jumped from the verandah, and were fortunate to escape with nothing more than a shaking. The occupants on the ground floor escaped in their night attire. When the city fire brigade arrived, having been summoned by members of a taxi company on the other side of the road, the house was blazing furiously. Three leads were brought into play, but it was a hopeless task, the old timber burning like matchwood. The flames were so high that the telephone wires running in front of the house were burned through. “I was awakened by the shrieking of women,” said an eye-witness, "and when I rushed outside I saw men framed in smoke and flame jumping off the verandah.” Mrs. J. Stone, who occupied the house, was sleeping on the ground floor with her two daughters. She is a heavy loser, and estimates her loss at £3OO, over and above the insurance of £SOO on her property. As far as she can make out the fire started in the kitchen. The building is owned by Grey and Menzies, and is over 50 years old, being originally a residence in what was, in the early days, Official Bay. It was a wooden structure, and made a veritable bonfire. The building is insured with the South British Office for £1,900, and the contents with the Home Office for £SOO.