A FATAL FIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 159, 4 January 1912, Page 8

A FATAL FIRE.

WOODEN-LEGGED MAN BURNISH By Telegraph—Press Associatidi^* ' Wellington, Wednesday. A fatal fire occurred in x Taianaki street at 1.30 this morning. A house of ten rooms, owned by Mrs. Heard and occupied by James Scott and his wife, was discovered to be on fire. Th& brigade was unable to (prevent the place being gutted. , A lodger, Percy McLean, struggled out of. a window with his night clothes ablaze, clambered down the side of the house, and 1 collapsed. He was found to be st&dly' ..burned about the head and body;.and,was removed to the hospital. Subsequently the body of John Calvert, a newspaper runner, was found irt a room fromwhich he had been unable to escape. Deceased was about fifty-four years "of age.

INQUEST ON THE VICTIM. Wellington, Last Night. An inquest was held to-day by Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M., on the body of John Calvert, an elderly man, who was burnt to death an a boarding-house in Taranaki street early this morning. The evidence showed that deceused,_ who had a wooden leg, came home intoxicated the previous evening and was helped up to bed. When the house was discovered to be on fire later on, efforts were made to get him out of the room, but he became abirive and would not go. Other occir its of the house had to save themsc 1 ;. The firemen were notified that tli. .i was a man in the house and fixed rop..i to the window, but unavailingly. A verdict was returned that Calvert was burnt to death, and had he .been sober would have had a better chance of escape; also that having a wooden leg he had less opportunity of escaping than a man in full possession of ■ his limbs. No blame was attachable to the proprietor of the boarding-house, who had done what he could. j It is not known whether, deceased had any relatives in Wellington. |