Man Fights to Make Wife Leap to Safety

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 369, 25 February 1937, Page 8

Man Fights to Make Wife Leap to Safety

VAIN STRUGGLE AMID THE FLAMES Trapped by fire at the top of a four storey house in St. John’s Wood London, N.W., Mr Frederick Hilliei struggled in vain to make his wifi jump 50 feet from a window. He was not strong enough to lift hei through the window. Time and agau ne tried. At Last she fell back uncon scious into the flames. Then Mr Hillier made the leap. He landed on the first-floor balcony, stnk ing the railings and injuring his back This was one of the many thrilling incidents of the fire m which two people lost their lives —Mrs Hillier and Celina Schneider, an elderly German spiristei A large crowd in the street below saw the dramatic rescue ot three children—Stanley Fisher (9) and his brothers, Dennis (5) and Peter (lb months). They were passed through the window of a flat on the second floor to neighbours leaning out of the window of the next-door house. Just as the last child was passed t< lafety the fire escape dashed up. After his jump, Mr Hillier crawleu along the balcony, climbing five barriers of railings before he came to the [ window of Miss Riden's flat, five houses ; along the terrace. | He awakened her by knocking on th. j glass. “I thought ne was k madman,’ I Miss Riden told a reporter afterwards ‘and for a time 1 dared not open th< window. But he Kept crying, ‘ Hel| me, help me!’ and then 1 opened th* window to let him in.” Mrs Henderson, who occupies the flat below Miss Riden and who was called by Miss Riden, said that as Hillier sat on a chair, dressed in pyjamas and ai overcoat, he swayed to and fro in hr grief. “ *My poor wife, she is dead,’ h* kept repeating. 4 She must be dead.' ’