Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

8 articles on this Page

Maesteg.

--Re-opening of Libanus, Treherbert.

Treherbert.

St. Andrew's Church, Llwynypia.

Advertising

Advertising

Fatal Fire at Mardy.

News
Cite
Share

Fatal Fire at Mardy. Brave Mother Perishes in Attempting her Child's Rescue. A terrible outburst of fire occurred at 72, "lardy Road, Mardy, a little before live clock 011 Monday morning with disastrously |atal results. The house was in the occupa- toon of two families :— Oliver Rees, Collier. Mrs. Rees, his wife. Elvira Rees, aged six. Tudor Kees, aged four. Ada Rees, aged four. Margaret Ellen Rees, aged 18 months. James Hemmings, Colliery Lamplighter. Mrs. Hemmings, his wife, aged 23. Beatrice May Hemmings, aged 2. these, five have perished. Mr. and Mrs. Kees and their son, Tudor, and Mr. Hemmings °aly, escaped from the burning house. It ^'aiispires that at about live o'clock Mrs. lemmings smelling smoke went downstairs a certain the cause, and found a chest of jh'awers on fire. Her shouts aroused her husband and Mr. & Mrs. Rees; Hemmings in a distracted state rushed into the street to sUllnon assistance, and Kees in his night ^ttire endeavoured to quench the fire with a jacket of water, but the flames shot up and jhe room became enveloped in smoke. Mrs. managed to escape, and Kees ran to the bedroom where his children were sleeping, his f'rst thoughts being to save them. The smoke \Vas blinding and suffocating, and he could nothing, but called to them "come to "a<ida, come to dadda "—one of them Tudor responded, and was, rescued, Kees himself escaping by climbing down into the street by the water shute. Mrs. Hemmings having aroused the Rees teuiiiy with maternal instinct ran to save her OWn child. When found she had the little OIle ill her embrace, and had doubtless been l^ft'ocated by the smoke. Information of the re was given to the police by a roadman joined Robert Jones, and P.S. Phillips with his two sons, and P.C.'s Sudbury aud Wallace Were quickly on the scene with a hose and *eel. The safety of the occupants was the thought of Sergeant Phillips and his ?len, and they at once sought information fr°m Rees who' had been taken into an adjoin- lug house. Kees, who was, however, in a state Of 4collapse, did not appear to realise that there was anyone left in the burning building. aDcl owing to this no efforts were made to gain entry, although by this time it is very llllprobab'le that any lives could have been aved, the building being like a roaring tttmace. ■Alfred Pritchard, collier, of 75, Mardy road, Mio rushed to the assistance of the police in COPing with the llanies, climbed up a pipe, Peeped through a window and saw the corpse ^Irs. Hemmings prostrate upon a bed, and r1 another window saw someone pressing h&tids against the glass and shouted to the ?°'ice that there was someone left in the ^riling building. On this many brave young Allows were volunteering their services when the interior of the house gave way with a crash, and with it went every vistage of hope of sav ing any occupants. vBy 7 o'clock members of the Feixdale Fire j~rigade had arrived on the scene and directed their effoits towards saving tha cottages on j^ther side, but being short of watei their j.^i'ts were unsuccessful. The inmates of hese had, however, in the meantime made !°?<l their escape, much of their furniture ei&g tumbled pel-mell into the street. i After the flames had been subdued the 0<iies of the victims were discovered, burnt charred beyond recognition, and it is Vj'thetic in the extreme to note that Mrs. f^Damings, who was in a delicate state of ?ealth, had in the terrible ordeal given birth child, which of course, was also dead, i, "he origin of the fire will remain a mystery, •lough it is generally believed that it origina- through a candle being left alight on the J^st of drawers where the fire was first dia- pered.

.Porth.