FATAL FIRE AT AUCKLAND

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 243, 20 February 1911, Page 5

FATAL FIRE AT AUCKLAND

OLD MAN BURNED TO DEATH. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Saturday. Scotia House, Hobson street, owned by Mr. Robertson and occupied by Mrs. C. Short and her daughter as a board-ing-house, was destroyed by fire, with the contents, at 3.44 thiß morning. Tlw house contained fourteen rooms. There were two boarders—Albert Norris, aged 72, mid a Maori man. The fire had a good hold when it was discovered. Mrs. and Miss Short escaped from a room on the ground floor uninjured. The fire brigade arrived promptly. The house was then in flames. Members of the brigade entered the upper rooms at considerable risk. They found Norris in a small upstairs room lying on the floor quite dead. He was partly clothed, and evidently had thrown on some clothing, and was suffocated in attempting to escape. The Maori escaped by jumping through a glass front window. He was badly cut, but otherwise uninjured. He 'had a narrow escape. The house and contents were insured.