OVERCOME BY SMOKE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 August 1938, Page 2

OVERCOME BY SMOKE

ELDERLY MAN’S DEATH. TRAGEDY AT KELBURN. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day, Apparently overcome by smoke, Mr James Reginald Gray, aged 80 years, a retired business man, was found lying unconscious in a back room of his home. 72 Kelburn Parade, when firemen gained entrance in response to a call received at 4.51 p.m. yesterday. Artificial respiration was applied,' but without avail. Mr Gray was a married man with seven daughters and one son. His wife and two daughters who lived with him had gone out earlier in the afternoon. . When the three engines which answered the call arrived, the fire had a good hold on the house, a two-storey wooden building of seven rooms. So dense.was the smoke that the firemen had to use breathing apparatus. The heat was intense. The origin of the fire was located in the dining-room on going through the house into the kitchenette the firemen discovered Mr Gray. It was thought that Mr Gray had possibly had a mishap while lighting a fire in the dining-room and had been overcome by smoke while attempting to get water from the kitchenette to put it out. Two hose lines were run out by the brigadesmen and the fire was got under control after 15 minutes. The room in which the fire originated was severely damaged, as was the hallway into which the fire was spreading when the brigade arrived. The other rooms were damaged only by smoke.