HEROISM OF FATHER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 37, 14 February 1939, Page 8

HEROISM OF FATHER

SON SAVED FROM DEATH IN FIRE RETURN TO BURNING HOUSE [ Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, Fob. 13. A father’s heroism in returning to ,i a blazing two-storeyed wooden house, - from which he had climbed down t the fire escape, saved the life of his . son when the flames swept through _ their home at 18 Avenue, ? Grey Lynn. Both men wer« burned, t the son very severely, and the house I was damaged extensively. I The injured men are: i Leonard Reuben Jepson, aged 23, single, engineer. Reuben Jepson, his father. Outstanding work by fire-fighters saved the houses on either side. The f Jepsons’ home and both the neigii--1 bouring houses were slightly dam- : aged. Describing his experiences while searchingt he burning house for his • son, Mr. Jepson said: “1 was awakened by the lire at 2 o’clock, and on opening the door of my bedroom was met by a wall of flame which blocked the stairs. Returning to my room I got down the fire escape. Finding my son not out of the house 1 entered the back door and reached the hall at lhe foot of the stairs. Len was lying in a passageway. I managed Io pick, him up and get him out the back door.” The occupants of one of the houses adjoining the biazing structure were advised to leave the building and one man, Mr. W. Muchamore, who on Thursday last, suffered five broken ribs and head injuries in a car smash, experienced Lhe greatest dilliculty in descending the stairs. The Jepsons are heavy losers, none of the contents of their home being j insured.