FATAL FIRE AT NAPIER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 3497, 11 January 1887, Page 2

FATAL FIRE AT NAPIER.

The following | an ionium of the lite lire U taken from the. Daily Telegraph of the,' 6>h: —Somn time, , after one o'ck'k this Morning the sound of the alarm hell aroused people ftom their hads/and, as showim,' tIW. tension caused hy the. Lite conflagration,'' the (itrne.t« were guon 'filled. The fire hrigade very promptly mustered at the engine station, and, under miperintendent Water wort li'h instruction*, two lixn reels whim driupatchui] up' Shako speare road,, and the manual engine was run out and hulled up the bill by a number of willing volunteers. Oh arrival at tlia sjkiih it was found that a cottage, a little below' the Catholio school, and occupied hy a family of the namo of Teehon, .was in flames. the timo that the fimt jet of water .'waa playing' on the building the . wuole inferior of the plane, was in a glow, of lire-; the fj loritig.of aiHippci'fitoi'y. had hee'ii'burned ■■• through,, and the vnof wag nearly oaisnnied by- the .fUniea whichenrif|i|vd it. : "Thereliciiisa gniil fiupj ly of water ill ■ fire ww* nfaed lo fie one coi ta»e, i he e.ffo. ts "f th ■ Napier BiL'a'le being ably "Secmiled by the fyit Brigade which wasoiivtliespoi hi L'»oil tini". The Firii Puliclv ( >n<lv>r Captain Cohen kept tie crowd lijujk, by which plenty of ronin was allowed the brigades, to work with vigor ami to carry out order) with pdsion. All (he t : me the. uniwst auxie'y was expressed, an to the, fate nf the inmates n,f: th- house; no line hiMii;; s-.as:i any of: i|ifinieiii(M»« fmiH the tUc.H|n<».' A'j young man by ilie. nuni- of l,e lhu' who HiKt.diHC'ivi'tt'd i|io h'r.v'i'i'l {Java; the alarm at the Shakespeare hill bell I

had heHii unable to wake the pnuple 'of the bouse though lih knocked and shunted to awaken them, mid » growing alai'iiiincreased that some at least of the ut Aial occupants must have perished in', the flames. There was only too much' reaaon for this painful anxiety, for when thefire WHtifSrieiitly subdued and it was possible to 'enter the charred ruins, there, under the front window, lying close together, were the reraniiß of two men. In the horrible sight it was some consolation to believe that from the position of the bodies the unfortunate men had been oblivions to thpir late, ami that death by suffocation must'have overtaken them in their sleep. And yet a further investigation denied to load to the supposition that "tit ot the men bad left bis bed to rouse bin friend who was Bleeping hear the window, or to esoaps by the front door, for one body was lying ou #bat bad been the bed, and the other wan partly lying over it, A tobacco pipe whb ou the ground. One of the bodies had on it the remains of % shirt, trousers, and boots; the,other body had no evidence of clothing, Ho fear.* f'ully bii<! the fire asted on the todies that-the fore-arm of one had been broken off, probably by a falling beam, ■aid this led to the belief that a man named Patriok Hogan was one of the victims. The'.diifMvaiy of the missing nartof the arm tdissipated-this idea. . fohn Teehon, the proprietor of the aoux", was recognised by the remains •f his el ithing, and it is thought that lie o'her body is that of a man named iClly. John Teehim eama* from Poverty Bay, and kept a lodging-house, ■nit though there is sonm report uf a hird man being in the house last light, and who succeeded in escaping, .vecaiileani no'hing reliable, Mm I'eelion and her two children vent up .wintry yesterday, and though her absence is reckoned a fortunate, eircuinstance, it is quite po'siMe that no tire would have occurred ha I the been at home, As soon as possible the bodies of the two unfortunate men were conveved to the Occidental-Hotel to await the inquest. , The house that was destroyed was owned by Mr J. 'fori 1 , of Pe.tane, and was insur d in the London and Lunoffice for £IOO. At the inquest it was elicited that Kelly was under the influence of drink at eleven o'clock on the night of the lire, while at that time Teehon was sober, Kelly was sixty years of age, and Teehon twenty-six. A verdict of accidental death was returned,