FIRE TRAGEDY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 October 1938, Page 5

FIRE TRAGEDY

NURSE BURNT TO DEATH IN NELSON SEVERAL OTHERS INJURED. OUTBREAK AT PUBLIC HOSPITAL. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) NELSON, October 30. One nurse was burnt to death and five others suffered shock and injuries 'from jumping from upper storey windows when the Nurses’ Home extension building near the main Nurses’ Home at the Nelson Public Hospital was totally destroyed by fire at two o’clock this morning. Fifteen nurses were in the building and they had no warning that the home was on fire until awakened by the flames which, filling the corridors, cut off any means of escape by the two staircases. The dead nurse, who was apparently overcome by smoke while sleeping and was burnt to death in her bed, was: Nurse Harry Rothwell, aged 22. Orari (near Geraldine). Those who were injured were: Sister M. Beardsley, moderately severe burns to the face and arms and shock. Sister E. W. Wilson, shock, slight burns and a strained back. Nurse J. Cook, shock and abrasions. Sister O. Gill, fracture of a small bone in the foot. Sister V. Males, shock and abrasions. The building was nearly enveloped in flames when the Nelson fire brigade arrived at 1.57 a.m., two minutes after it received the alarm at the station. Evidently the flames had a strong hold in the building before they were noticed and the nurses sleeping upstairs were trapped. FLAMES SPREAD RAPIDLY.

A man who drove past the building in his car noticed nothing untowaid. but when going over a slight rise in lhe road only 150 yards away from the building saw the flames reflected in his rear vision mirror. He stopped and saw flames at the southern end of the building and before he had run back half the distance flames were coming out of the windows along the whole length of the home and all parts of the building were aflame. He saw nurses running out of the front entrance. There were several screams, but nothing that could be described as a panic. A fire escape from one room on the northern side of the front entrance was thrown out of the window, and a number of nurses made their exit by that means. Other nurses jumped from their bedroom windows, a distance of 20 feet, to the lawns, suffering heavy falls. The motorist, in an interview, said, that when he leached the building from his car, only 150 yards away, the fire had such a strong hold that it was impossible for anyone to enter the building. That was before the arrival of the brigade. How so many of the nurses escaped was a miracle to him.

“I’ve been puzzled how the flames burst out so quickly from all parts of the building,” he said. Nurse Rothwell nad been training at the Nelson Hospital for the past three and a half years. Her mother, Mrs J, Taverner, resides at Summerton, Belfield, Orari. CHARRED BODY FOUND.

As soon as a search was possible, Nurse Rothwell’s body was found on the wire mattress of the bed in her room in the upper story of the building. The building, which was of wood covered with rough-cast, contained a sitting-room, 25 bedrooms, an ironing room, conveniences, and a boiler-room for the ( central heating system under the building. Each room was provided with a flexible iron fire escape ladder. At the inquest, which was opened and adjourned, Mr T. E. Maunsell, S.M., coroner, was satisfied that the charred remains were those of Nurse Harry Rothwell. Dr P. C. E. Brunette, medical superintendent, said the body was recovered from the building at approximately 5 a.m. on Sunday. It was charred beyond recognition, and was lying on the wire mattress of the bed in the room usually occupied by Nurse Rothwell. She was the only nurse who usually slept in the building not accounted for. Nurse Joan Alice Smith said she had slept in the building until she was called at 12.15 a.m. At 10.35 o'clock on the previous evening, Nurse Rothwell had been in witness’s room talking to her. Nurse Rothwell’s room was next to witness’s, and she had left intending to go to bed.