BABY IN BLAZING ROOM

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 314, 27 March 1928, Page 13

BABY IN BLAZING ROOM

FRANTIC EFFORTS TO EFFECT RESCUE TRAGEDY AT WHAKATANE (From Our Own Correspondent.) WHAKATANE, Monda y. The infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick L T . Skelton, of James Street, was fatally burned in a fire which occurred on Saturday night in premises owned by the Trcloar Milking Machine O* . and leased to Mr. Skelton. Mr. and Mrs. Skelton, with the child, and the child’s grandmotii* r. Mrs. Rolfe, returned home from an outing, and after putting the child in a perambulator in the front room, Alt Skelton went into another room to till a stove with benzine. There was a lighted candle in the room, and as he filled tho stove some benzine spilled, and the fumes from it reaching th«* candle the room caught fire. Mr. Skelton ran for a hose, but could not screw it on to the tap, and he then rushed to rescue the child, but | was driven back by the flames and | fumes. Airs. Rolfe, thinking tho child was in the cot, ran to get it, not knowing that it had been placed in the perur - bulator. She was nearly overcome by the heat and fumes, and was very exhausted when she got outside. Airs Skelton was in the back room and just managed to escape by a window. Her grief was terrible when si found her child was still in the building. Notwithstanding that the buildii ■; was a mass of flames the fire brigud aided by a good pressure of water, soon had the fire under control, but the building was gutted. Attempts to reach the child were mad by Fireman T. Morgan and the father, but they were unable to withstand th ■ heat. Finally Fireman Morgan, at a third attempt, with a handkerchief tiou over his face, managed to secure the charred remains of the infant. An inquest was held this morning by the coroner, Mr. G. A. Brabant, and after evidence had been given on th* lines indicated above, a verdict was returned that death was due to the accidental burning of the building.