WOMAN BURNED TO DEATH.
DUNEDIN. lst January. A woman named Mary Ann Heath, aged seventy-one years, and an old-age pensioner, was burned to death about 2.20 this morning. She resided with her husband and two other women in a four-roomed house in Dowling-street. When the fire was discovered the husband is alleged to have been more or less under the the influence liquor, and apparently the inmates of the house had been letting off fireworks earlier in the night. The origin of the fire is a mystery. The house was partly destroyed, and the brigade found the woman's charred remains behind the bedroom door. The husband is suffering somewhat from shock, but not seriously. -Evening Post, 3/1/1911.
FIRE FATALITY.
DRINK AND DEATH AT DUNEDIN.
The Helplessness of Mary Ann Heath.
New Year's Horror — An Aged Couple — Crackers and Beer — Maudlin McLaren — Caught in a Death trap — Evidence at the Inquest — Tumble-down Tenements — Lancaster's Half Acre — What the Neighbors Said — The Coroner's Verdict.
The recent fatal fire in Dunedin has demonstrated with much distinctness the existence of slum property in that holy city, and the inquest on the body of the unfortunate old woman who was burned brought out the facts of an amount of overcrowding, which is a scandal to a civilised community. In Dunedin, in the vicinity of Maclagan-street, Wright-street, and Dowling-street, there are old hovels crammed to overflowing with poor people, and their conditions are insanitary, immoral, and another glorious tribute to the smug, sweating, sanctimonious landlord. The house the deceased and her drunken husband lived in was a small fourr roomed shanty, ancient and odorous, divided amonst four tenants, and from, the. first moment of the fire it was doomed and
A VERITABLE DEATH-TRAP. This house was the property of a man called Edward Lancaster, of fat and prosperous mien., who proudly related the fact that he was the owner of half an acre in that salubrious locality and had no less than eighteen such tenants.
However, the inquest was held in the Magistrate's Court on Saturday last, before Coroner Graham, when William Heath, husband of the deceased, was able to appear.
Heath has, since the fire, been in the hospital suffering from shock, the effects of liquor, and a burned hand.
Station-sergeant King represented the police.
William Heath said that on New Years Eve he and his wife, Mary Ann, were at home. A man called Andrew McLaren was also there for a time, but whether at the time the fire broke out he could not say, but he did not think so. They had three bottles of beer together. He had a few drinks down the town, before coming home, and thought he was pretty well sober. He did not think his wife had any beer. She had refused to take it, and had not had any for months. He thought it would be about 9 p.m. they went to bed. He had brought some crackers down the town, and let off two in the house to give his wife
A BIT OF A FRIGHT.
The remains of the first cracker he threw into the fireplace, but he could not say where the second went to. The first thing he knew about the fire was his wife shaking him, and telling him she had been trying to wake him for some time. Witness saw flames all around and tried to drag her out. She held back and said she wanted something. Witness did not know what it was she wanted. He told her to stand there for a minute while he got a bucket of water and went out. When he returned he could not see her for smoke.
Station-sergeant King interrupted the old man's narrative at this point to remark to the coroner: Excuse me, your Worship, but the witness's story is quite different from what he told us. I think it is wasting your Worship's time to take his evidence.
Coroner Graham: He may be drawing upon his imagination, but I must take his evidence.
Continuing, witness said that he went out into the passage. He wanted to go in again but they would not let him, saying his wife was all right.
To Station-Sergeant King: He was in the Oban Hotel that night, and got the beer he had taken home. He went straight home with it. Only his wife was in the house when he got home. He was not drunk when he got home from the Oban. He could not say if McLaren went up home with him or whether he was in the house at the time of the fire. Witness did not think he drank more than a bottle of beer and
HIS WIFE DID NOT DRINK ANY. He did not remember McLaren pulling him out through the window and did not see how he could as the window was eight or nine feet from the ground.
Sergeant King: Not the window on the verandah
Witness: There isn't a window on the verandah.
Continuing, Heath denied saying to the policeman who saw him in the hospital, that he was too drunk to remember anything. He admitted he was a little fuddled. He had bought the crackers in the afternoon, and let them off with McLaren. McLaren was sober at the time.
Station-Sergeant King: If McLaren says he did not let off crackers, would you contradict him?
Witness: Yes.
And yet he was sober and you were drunk?
Witness admitted he was addicted to liquor, but denied losing his old age pension through it. Later he admitted that he had lost the pension, not through drink but because a bottle of beer had been found in the house. He was 69 years of age, and would be 70 in May. His wife was 71 years. He never saw his wife after the fire. He had been in the hospital since. He could not say what had become of his clothes.
Station-Sergeant King explained that the police had
BORROW CLOTHES FOR HEATH.
To the Coroner: There was a candle in the room, but no lamp.
Andrew McLaren, a short, thick-set individual, with one eye, said he was a laborer and lived in Maclagan-street, and be knew deceased. He was in the house on December 31. He went there by himself. He was not sober, and he was not drunk. He took two bottles of beer with him, of which witness, Heath and Mrs Heath partook, the others were drunk. No fireworks were let off while he was there. He remained in the house after Heath and his wife went to bed. Witness was on a chair, and fell asleep with his arms across the table. A candle was burning alongside the bed when he went to sleep. The smoke awakened him and he ran out to the back door and found it locked and the key gone. He pushed through a glass window in the scullery, and was getting out when he heard Heath call him. Heath was leaning out of the window, and witness had to jump to get hold of him and pull him through. Heath seemed to lose all power when he got the window up. Witness then went up the steps again, smashed in the back door, and made two desperate attempts to get Mrs Heath, but the fire drove him back. Deceased was
ON THE BED SCREAMING. Witness ran out to give the alarm, but found it had already been given.
To Station-sergeant King: There was no other beer in the house when he arrived. Both the Heaths were under the influence of liquor. When they went, to bed Heath undressed, but his wife did not. They were talking a lot after they were in bed. Heath made no attempt to get his wife out. The window was about 6ft. 6in. above the ground. No one had called him "Bob" in the house.
Joseph Jeremiah Salmon, Deputy Superintendant of the Fire Brigade, said that at about 2.30 a.m. he saw the reflection of fire, and gave the alarm. When the brigade arrived at the house they found the fire had a good hold, particularly in Heath's room. They were told there was
A WOMAN IN THE BUILDING. Witness had a look at the place, but found it was absolutely impossible to do anything. After the fire was subdued witness found deceased sitting at the extreme end of the room on the floor. The body was removed by the police.
To Station-Sergeant King: The construction of the House made it a difficult one to get out of.
To the Coroner: He saw Heath outside in a dazed and muddled state.
Norah Jennings, a voluble old Irish lady with a strong brogue, who also resided in the house in question, said she remembered the fire. McLaren was bringing beer to the place all the week. McLaren and Heath had a row about the beer that night, and were going to fight. McLaren said he had brought up the beer, four bottles of it, but witness heard deceased say that any beer in the place had been paid for by her. Witness heard the cracker being let off. She was afraid go to bed until 11.15 p.m., and was awakened again about 2a.m., when she heard Mrs Heath screaming. This was a common occurrence at the place since the Heaths came to it. A man called "William! Come out" and, after, she heard Heath call "Mary! Come out." Heath used to bring drunkards to the house, and the screams were of common occurrence. Witness had to get out with very little clothing on.
Edward Lancaster, who is a fat, prosperous-looking party and is the landlord of these mansions, walked into the box and said he was a carpenter and owned half an acre of land round about. He lived next door to Heath's house, and had been sleeping for over a week in his clothes on account of
THE DRUNKEN DISTURBANCES. He heard the row on the fatal night, and after it died away, he went to bed, congratulating himself on his luck that nothing had happened. The fire awakened him and he tried to use his garden hose on it, but could not work it. He called some of the neighbors.
To Station-Sergeant King: Four different tenants occupied the house. He had been unfortunate in having Heath's class of tenant. He thought they came on account of the rent, which was cheap, being four shillings per week. He had about 18 such tenants oh his property.
Constable F. J. Baker gave formal evidence as to the removal of the body.
The Coroner considered the verdict would have to be one of accidental death from burning. The only two causes of the fire, to his mind, were the smouldering casing of a cracker and the lighted candle, but it was purely a matter of conjecture. The case revealed a disgusting state of affairs. It was altogether extraordinary to him that people could not celebrate the New Year without such disgraceful scenes. -NZ Truth, 14/1/1911.
Mary Ann Heath lies in an unmarked - presumably a pauper's - grave in Dunedin's Southern Cemetery.
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