TWiki > Pohos > PolishGenealogy > PolishArtilces > GutBurn	TWiki webs: CLife| Know | Main | Pohos | Sandbox | TWiki |
	Pohos . { Changes | Index | Search | Go }

-- PaulKlemick - 23 Jul 2007

FEARFUL ACCIDENT AT THE TAIERI

A WOMAN AND CHILD SEVERELY BURNED.

An accident of a most fearful and calamitous nature, and which it is feared, may yet in one instance prove fatal, occurred at the Taieri on Tuesday night. A number of Germans, and their families, recently from work at the Chain Hills, have encamped in tents in the scrub at the rear of Mr. McKegg’s White House Hotel, being engaged upon the railway works in the vicinity. The party numbers six men in all - four married and two single - having in each case separate tents. On the night in question they had all retired to bed early, when about eleven o’clock, one of the single men, hearing loud cries for help, ran out of his tent, and was horrified by seeing that that occupied by one of the married men, with his wife and child, was in flames, and the owner, Gutschlay, was outside it, having apparently only just escaped, for his hair was in absolute flames. The man, who was the first to come to the rescue, rushed to the tent, tore open the end of it, and got out Mrs. Gutschlay and her infant. By this time all the rest were awakened, and the unfortunate sufferers were conveyed to another tent, where it was found that Mrs. Gutschlay had suffered injuries of a terrible nature about the upper part of her body. The head, neck, and back were frightfully burnt, and on portions of her arms the flesh was merely a charred mass. The infant was badly burned about the head, but the injuries to the husband were not so severe. On Wednesday morning Mr. McKegg kindly took the poor people into the Dunedin Hospital in his spring-cart. The cause of the fire was, it would seem, purely accidental. The Germans have been noted for the quietness their behaviour and the regularity of their habits. The Gutschlay’s were in the habit of keeping a can of lighted charcoal in the tent at night for the purpose of warming it, and though warned of the danger they endured by doing so, they persisted in this course, and there is no doubt that to it they owe the unfortunate mischance which has befallen them. It may be added that Gutschlay and his wife were both young people, the wife only 20 years, and of very considerable personal attractions. "The Bruce Herald", 28th August 1874.