Children Trapped

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1067, 3 September 1930, Page 9

Children Trapped

FIRE SWEEPS TENEMENT

Heroic Rescues By Boys

DOG TUGGING AT BED GIVES ALARM

United P.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright Received 12.15 p.m. LONDON, Tuesday. jyBSPITE the heroism of their elder brothers, three AngloChinese children under eight years of age were incinerated in Liverpool’s Chinatown. The family occupied a two-storey tenement building, and the father, Hun Yen, was absent at the time of the fire.

A pet dog, “Spot,” roused the 13-years-old Robert Yen, at midnight, by barking. Robert woke his mother, who is an Englishwoman. Both ran downstairs and found the kitchen on the ground floor blazing fiercely. The mother rushed for the fire-engine, while Robert went back in an effort to rescue his three brothers and two sisters. The flames drove him back, after which he clung to a window-sill, whence he was later rescued badly burned. Meanwhile, the 10-years-old brother, Willie, in a smoke-filled room, picked up the baby, broke the window and

held it out in the fresh air until a firemah climbed up a fire escape and rescued them. Willie said: “Wait a minute.” and ran back and fetched another infant. The fireman carried both down and then returned to rescue Wiliie, who was clinging to a hot waterspout. Another hero, Ah Sin, who is blind, despite his burning clothes, stood at a window shouting: “Save the children,” but by then the two boys and a girl had been trapped. A fireman found the charred corpses and also the body of the dog “Spot,” which Willie says was tugging the bedclothes endeavouring the rouse the unconscious children.