TRAPPED BY FLAMES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 July 1938, Page 6

TRAPPED BY FLAMES

♦ WOMAN SERIOUSLY INJURED . . IN AUCKLAND JUMP FROM VERANDAH ROOF (By Telegraph—Press Association). AUCKLAND, This Day.' Trapped by a solid wall of flame, that blocked all exits from the upper storey bedroom in which she slept, terrified by flames shooting from the windows behind her, Mrs Annie Eliza; beth Maltby, an elderly married woman, jumped from the verandah roof of her home at. St James Square, in the. city, early this morning, She was taken to hospital with serious injuries. Also in hospital are her daughter, Alice Margaret, aged 15, and son, Walter Albert, an engineer’s apprentice, aged 18, both were injured in escaping from the blazing shell of their wooden five-roomed house. Five people were asleep in the house when Mrs Maltby was awakened in the second storey. She screamed to her husband, who rushed to the front of the- house and found the sitting room'filled with a solid sheet of flame. Mrs Maltby became terrified ‘ ; and jumped, falling on a picket fence. The girl and boy were helped down by their elder brother, who escaped uninjured. Mrs Maltby has seridus'burns and an injured back. Her condition is rather serious. The two children suffered burns, which are not serious. The house is a charred shell, except for one back room. The building was owned by Mrs F. W. Ockleford, and was insured with the Standard Insurance Company.