FIRE AT A BOARDINGHOUSE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7727, 1 February 1905, Page 2

FIRE AT A BOARDINGHOUSE.

NARROW ESCAPE OF THE INMATES. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 31. A fire at Newtown at) 3.30 this morning destroyed a boarding-house in Russell Terrace, occupied by a family named Sutherland. There were thirteen or fourteen boarders, all of whom were tramway men. The house was owned by MrSotlie, and was insured for £SOO in the Now Zealand and £l5O in tho Commercial Union. The furniture was partly covered by a risk of £2OO in tho Alliance. Sutherland's effects were insured for £175 in the South British. The occupants cannot explain how the fire occurred. All the lodgers were on the late shift with the electric cars, and reached home about midnight, when there was no sign of fire. The inmates escaped in various stages of undress, and not one of them, succeeded in saving any clothirig\ Besides losing the personal effects of himself and his familv, Sutherland left a sum of £3l on'a tabic in his room. The lodgers also lost their money as well as their clothes, but all appeared to look on their misfortune with a cheerful facp. Some of them had the greatest difficulty in escaping from the top flat, and one or two had to jump from high upstairs windows into trees In the garden. Tlioso acrobatic feats/ luckily resulted in. nothing more serious than bruised legs and cut laces, but the quantity of singed hair on some of the lodgers -was a striking testimony of how close they had been to the lire.