FATAL FIRE AT BLENHEIM.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Issue IX, 29 August 1887, Page 2

FATAL FIRE AT BLENHEIM.

(United Press Association.) ■ Blenheim, August 27. A fire, attended with fatal consequences, occurred at 1.30 this' morn- , ing, the South Star. Hotol being ' butned down. The fire, when disi covered, had a good hold of the buildi ing, and the brigade, with the steam i engine, could do nothing, but extin- ' guish the burning embers, The origin of the fire is a mystery. All was right when the landlord re-. ' tired about midnight, and the lights 3 were out at that hour, and the lights [ were out at that hour. He slept on • the ground floor, and was awakened 1 by a lodger at. 1.80. He made an 1 effort to get upstairs to rouse the 1 inmates, but the beat and smoke pre- * vented him getting further than the landing. r There were" a good number •of t boarders in the house* and those sleept ing upstairs had. great difficulty in ■1 getting out. .No fire-escapes wore r provided, and the bedclothes were

brought.into;requisitribn 'as a means of escape. .-, . '.-. -.•";"•..■.-. Mr Richard Winter, 'the editor of the Marlborough Times, who jumped

out of an upstairs window, .sustained 'a compound fracture of the leg, and was much singed and bruised.';. /Another lodger named ■ i)avid Henderson, an elderly ; man,; lost' his life.- The remains of'liis body, were found at daylight and conveyed to the Morgue. Very little property.':was saved, ' .'•',''• The insurances on the building'ke —£6 so in the Equitable (£3OO-re-insured in tlie Standard); on furniture £IOO in the South British, and on the stock . £SO in the same • dffiee. (So far as:we have been able to ascertain here, the insurances aro t-Ou building, £650. in Equitable, £BOO in Colonial, half ro-insured in Standard. On Stock and furniture, £250 in South .British,) "' .- n ; ; Later,; An inquest is to be held this : afternoon on the remains of David Henderson, who was burnt this morning by the fire in the South Star Hotel. There having been reports of one 'or two others missing, but the most diligent search has revealed nothing further.