BURNED TO DEATH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1940, Page 7

BURNED TO DEATH

A WOMAN’S FATE. FUTILE EFFORTS AT RESCUE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH. October 22. A woman, aged 70, named Louie Rowe, was burned to death when her home at 41 Curletts Road, Upper Riccarton, was completely destroyed bj fire at about 4 p.m. Her husband. Owen John Rowe, aged 81, was able to escape from the building and his attempts' to return and rescue his wife were unsuccessful. The house was outside the Christchurch Fire Board’s area and there was no water supply available to combat the blaze. It spread very quickly and the house, an old one-storey wooden building, was burned to the ground in a very short time. About 1 p.m. Mr and Mrs Rowe retired to their bedroom for their afternoon rest and there was a fire burning in the front room. Later in the afternoon Mr Rowe got out of bed and went towards the front room to replenish the fire. He saw smoke coming up through the passage from the back of the house and immediately called his wife. He saw her getting out of bed and then went out through the front door. He then found that his wife had been unable to get out and tried to enter the house but was prevented by the spread of the fire both at the back and front. The house was completely destroyed in a very short time. At 5 p.m. Sergeant J. J. Kearns with two constables from the central police station assisted by Constable W. Fraser, of Upper Riccarton, discovered the charred body of Mrs Rowe in the debris.