FATAL FIRE AT LYTTELTON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 144, 12 July 1901, Page 2

FATAL FIRE AT LYTTELTON.

+— PBB PBBSS ASSOCIATION.) Christohobch, July 11. This af ti>rncon a four-room; d cottage in Little Brenchley Koad, Lyttelton, was burned and three' children lost their lives. The co'tage was occupied by a lumper named Frederick Day. He was at woik and h<s wife had gone ont leaving the children, a boy named Frederick Thomas, four years, a girl, ■ Evelyn May, five yeirs and eight [months, and a girl, Dorothy Maud, two years and seven month*, in the house with a fire burning in the front room. At 1.15 p.m. Alfred Day, a brother of ocupant, while returning from rabbit shce'ing on the hills, saw smoke rising from the cottage, and running to the p'are near by, he got assistance and went to the co't ige and broke the front window, but flames within prevented auy rescue. The brigade could do nothing, and th<> cottage «as burned to the ground. The fire is suppo-ed to have been burning übiut tweuty minutes wh'>n discovered. The bodies of the children were found in the debr's Tie hoy ant' young»r girl were on the frijte of the siting room. The former was on tbe fl'or with a pillow over his head, and the latter on the remains of the couch wi'h the bead und <r a pillow. The elder girl's body was in the ki'chen All the bodies were lying face downwards, and nil were charred .byond recognition. The building wbs insmel in the Roy»l Offic) for £ 100. Tbe furnitui e, whi h was all destroyed, was uninsured.