FATAL FIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 224, 4 January 1911, Page 5

FATAL FIRE.

A WELLINGTON OUTBREAK. TWO MEN BURNED TO DEATH. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Tuesday

At 12.30 this morning a fire broke out in the Wellesley Boarding-house, Johnston street, owned by Kirkcaldic and Stains, and leased by John Jackson. Two inmates, an elderly man named Edward Crombie, employed on the wharf, and another, probably P. Meban, a young man last employed on the patent slip, were burned to death. The building of two storeys was locked between other buildings with no space between and exits only through the front and back windows and doors. There were twenty-five or twenty-seven boarders on the premises when the alarm was given, and a wild scramble for life ensued, some who jumped from the windows and verandah sustaining minor injuries. The building was quickly a mass of roaring flame, and there was 110 time for the inmates to collect their belongings, the majority escaping in night attire, some with trousers and slippers on. In the rush and scramble the men lost sight of one another, and what exactly happened to the deceased is unknown. Whether they suffered from jostling at windows is unknown. Superintendent O'Brien's opinion is that Crombie was making his way to the window, was overcome by smoke, fell, and met his death. The second body was found in a passage-way not near the exits. Both bodies were badly burned. It was utterly impossible for anyone to enter the upstairs portion, as it was a mass of flames. When an entry was made it was too late to save life. The fire is supposed to have started in the kitchen. The building was insured for £BOO, £4OO in the Yorkshire Office and £4OO in the Commercial Union. The furniture was insured, but the amount is unknown.