SHOCKING BURNING TRAGEDY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 203, 7 May 1912, Page 8

SHOCKING BURNING TRAGEDY

woman .••:•;" two children ; incinerated. Fremantle, April 30. I Under tragic circumstarnces at East Fremantle last night a married woman, named Eliza Ptolomy, aged 42, two children, Doris, aged 4 years, and Joseph, aged 2% years, were burnt to death. The husband, who was not at home at the time, is said to have last seen his wife at 7 p.m. The family lived in an old two-roomed weather-board structure. The mother and children apparently went to bed early, for shortly before 9 o'clock flames were noticed in the house by some people in the street. Some delay occurred before a telephone could be found to notify the fire brigade. As no movement was heard in the house the bystanders apparently were under j the impression that no one was inside the dwelling. The fire brigade arrived on the scene in quick time. Constable O'Shea, on looking through the bedroom window, was horrified to see Mrs. Ptolomy lying on the bed, which was wreathed in flames, the ironwork being white hot. No time was lost in playing water on the bed, and in effecting an entrance through the wooden wall. The fire ha<3 a complete hold of the dwelling, and when it was possible to approach the bedstead through the debris the remains of the unfortunate woman were discovered lying in such a position as gave rise to conviction that there had been no struggle to escape from the flames.

The remains of the children, who had been in bed with the mother, we're then searched for. The little girl had apparently been awakened by the flames, and had tried to make her way out round the end of the bed to the doorway leading into the living-room, thence to the outside door. She had got no farther than the end. of the bed. Her remains were found between the wall and the bedstead. The little boy, too, had tried to wander away, and had evidently fallen to the floor beneath the bed, where he had been burned to death. A remarkable feature of the terrible occurrence was that no noise was heard from the occupants of the house.