The 30 drifters forgotten in life and death when they perished in a hostel fire to be remembered with memorial
HALF the victims had been forgotten even before they died in Australia’s worst building fire that left 30 homeless men dead when a hostel near Melbourne docks caught fire on August 13, 1966.
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HALF the victims had been forgotten even before they died, with the Salvation Army left to line up coffins of 15 unclaimed fatalities for a joint funeral at their temple in central Melbourne.
All had perished in Australia’s worst building fire that left 30 homeless men dead when the Salvation Army’s William Booth Memorial Home near Melbourne docks caught fire on August 13, 1966.
The youngest victim was labourer Thomas Raymond Wilson, or Densworth, aged 38. The oldest was pensioner Herbert Joseph McNeice, 85.
A memorial service will be held today at the Salvation Army’s Bourke Street Temple, where 400 strangers wept at the funeral of unclaimed victims on August 23, 1966.
The fire in the six-storey Little Lonsdale St hostel, home to more than 200 battlers, half of them “heavy” drinkers, started when chemist Vincent Fox left a radiator burning in his third-floor cubicle near the main stairwell.
An inquest found Fox, who returned from the Metropolitan Hotel on Saturday evening after drinking the equivalent of 27 small glasses, or 13 schooners, of beer, or 18oz of whiskey, and had fallen asleep.
His radiator, banned in rooms because of fire risk, toppled over on the floor. Residents noticed smoke about 8.30pm and broke down the door to Fox’s cubicle, one of 64 on each floor, creating a backdraft that caused “a great gust of flame” to roar out.
One man turned a fire extinguisher on the flames while others hammered on doors to raise the alarm.
Hostel assistant manager James Reiser told an inquest he rushed to the third floor and found a cubicle ablaze and a man inside.
“I grabbed a fire hose and went to turn it on, but the brass tap gave me a shock sufficient to make me drop the hose,” he said. “I told the other men not to touch the tap and rushed downstairs to call the fire brigade.”
The brigade arrived at 8.45pm as men were ordered to evacuate by loudspeaker announcements. Nightwatchman Kelvin Fitness, 24, reported racing upstairs after he smelt smoke.
“I reached the third floor and tried to get through the smoke but flames kept forcing me back. There was nothing I could do but go back down the stairs.”
Cafeteria manager Les Anderson heard the crackling of flames and met a wall of flame when he ran from his top storey room. “I still can’t remember how we got out. I just grabbed the wife and ran,” he said. “There wasn’t time to wake anyone.”
With flames blocking the main stairway, many ran to a back stairwell, but became disorientated in the dark.
“Instead of turning towards the stairway and safety, many ran into their bedrooms,” Metropolitan Fire Brigade chief John Paterson told the inquest. “We found a number of bodies huddled together in the bathroom.”
Although the Salvation Army’s English founder William Booth preached abstinence, the Melbourne working men’s hostel built in 1915 and named in Booth’s honour did not judge its occupants.
Built close to a train station, docks and Melbourne markets, in 50 years it had housed World War I diggers and victims of the depression years. Originally charging a penny for soup and bread, cakes and scones, and threepence for a meat and vegetable meal, in 1966 average board was $6 a week, including bedding and three meals a day.
On August 14, the army’s social secretary Roy Darlow described hostel residents: “They drift in, some might stay for a day, some a week and others a year. Some drink heavily, and we hope we are a good, steadying influence for them. Many people cannot understand why we bother with these types. We act in mercy, not judgment.”
Although extinguished a little after 9pm, fire destroyed the third and fourth floors, killing Fox almost instantly and claiming another 28 lives, with 14 survivors taken to hospital, where Frederick Haas, 74, died the next day.
The inquest heard bronchial complaints suffered by many elderly hostel residents contributed to the high death toll. Some had also been drinking and probably “couldn’t help themselves”.
A memorial plaque unveiled today will remember victims David Cooper, 74; Garnet Quinlan, 49; James Vickerman, 50; Harry Dawson, 70; George Robertson, 50; Farnworth Black, 55; James Wright, 63; John McKenzie, 57; James Blackwood, 69; Francis Conway, 47; William Biske (Marchant) 55; Edward Lamaur, 65; James Farr, 59; Andrew Showler, 65; David Hartley, 45; Leonard Baguley (Sault), 41; Arthur Vigor, 72; Ronald Mackenzie, 46; Gordon Whelan, 60; Edward (Edwin) Hooson, 61; Charles Statton, 61; Frank Udale, 65; James Miller, 72; Joseph Mangan, 63; John Lloyd, 49; James Dean (Reid) 55; and Fox, 61; Wilson, McNeice and Haas.
Originally published as The 30 drifters forgotten in life and death when they perished in a hostel fire to be remembered with memorial
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