MIDNIGHT FIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 January 1942, Page 4

MIDNIGHT FIRE

POLICE ENQUIRIES MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. MOVEMENTS OF MENTALPATIENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Detectives are inquiring into the circumstances of the mysterious midnight fire which completely destroyed a bach at Titahi Bay, and after which the charred remains of Miss Mary Currie were discovered. There are understood to have been some developments in consequence of the happening, but no further information was available last night. It is reported that an escaped inmate of Porirua Mental Hospital, who was allegedly found after the fire in possession of certain articles from the bach, has been located by the authorities. Recounting the events leading up to the discovery of the fire, Mr Thorne George, who lives close by and discovered the fire, said: “My wife said to me that there was a light flashing in our bedroom window, but we did not take any undue notice at the time, because cars frequently come along to a turning-place and their headlights flash in the windows of our home. “When Mrs George switched off the light, after perhaps another half-hour, we saw that the place was burning fiercely. .We slipped on some clothes and went across to the bach, which is only about 100 yards away, as quickly as we could. When we got there it was so fiercely alight that we couldn’t get within coo-ee of it. Nothing could be done.”