THE FIRE AT ORAWAITI.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 837, 18 July 1871, Page 2

THE FIRE AT ORAWAITI.

DESTRUCTION OF THE ST. KILDA HOTEL. An enquiry into the circumstances attending the fire at Orawaiti on Sunday last was held by Dr Giles, at the Miners' Best Hotel, North Beach, yesterday. A jury having been impannelled, of which Mr J. Hughes was chairman, the following evidence was taken:— Charlotte Cook: I am the wife of Lewis Arthur Cook. I have been living lately at the St. Kilda Hotel, at the Orawaiti. My husband has not been living there. The license was held by Mr Atkinson, the owner of the house, The. house was burned down on Sunday morning last. My husband and I were in the house at the time. Before I went to bed my husband and Fred Luff were in the house; they went out between nine and ten p.m, to the best of my recollection. I went to bed immediately afterwards, having first put out the fire ; the fire was in the little sitting room next to the bed room. I carried out the big faggots and put out the embers with water. My husband came home, I should think, about midnight, and I let him in. He slept in the bar or in the room next to it. I then locked the door of the sitting reom, and was afterwards woke up by the roaring of fire ; the house was in a blaze over my head. I dont know how I got out, but I believe that Cook knocked something down for me to get out. No nobody else, was there. Nothing was saved that I know of but an old carpet-bag. My husband said it was my screams that woke him. The room where the fireplace was, was lined with scrim and paper; there was also a fire in the kitchen which was lined and papered like the parlour. The fireplaces were made of brick with zinc chimneys. I took the burning logs outside the front door and quenched them with water when I went to bed ; I also quenched all the large embers in the fireplace with water. The fire seemed to come from the end of the house* where the parlour was. My husband had no light, and I did not strike one when he came. It was raining heavily when I put out the fire. I had to go through the parlour to let in my husband, and I then saw.no fire. Lewis Arthur Cook stated that he went home about eleven o'clock on Saturday night, and was let in by hiß wife. He had no light; she gave him some blankets and he went and slept in the long room. He was woke up by the fire overhead and by hearing his wife cry out in a stifled manner. He burst open the parlour door to let his wife out, the place being then fall of smoke. He pushed her outside, and tried to extinguish the fire with a blanket. The fire came from the fire-

place in the parlour which wtfs red hot. He endeavoured to save his wife's clothes being unable to save the building, and had to get out at the back through the partition, the front being a mass of flame. On taking hold of the back door it gave way and he fell outside with the door upon him r receiving some burns upon the head. Witness escaped with nothing but his shirt, and then alarmed Keating and Jone- who live close by. Arthur Luff stated that he knew the fireplaces at the St. Kilda Hotel. There was a space between the chimney piece and the stud through which the scrim was exposed.. Thomas Johnston Jones stated he was woke up about two o'clock on Sunday morning by an alarm of fire. He got up, and found the St. Kilda Hotel wa« burning. On reaching the spot he found that the roof had fallen in, and the walls were then burning. Cook appeared to have nothing on but a blanket. William Aventon Kiely, Senior Sergeant of Police, gave corroborative evidence. On reaching the spot witness found Cook at the Bridge Hotel. The St. Kilda Hotel was then nearly burned to the ground. The jury found that the St. Kilda Hotel was burned down accidentally, but there was no evidence to show how I the fire had originated.