For 50 years, firefighters Peter Draper and Brent Single have wondered what happened to a woman photographed against a backdrop of a roaring house fire on Napier Hill. Then, out of the blue, an email arrived. Doug Laing reports.
Did she survive?
The silhouette in the window of a fatal Napier house fire – what happened to Fay Milne?
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Fay Milne's silhouette in the fire photo as published by the Napier Daily Telegraph on April 8, 1975. Photo / Daily Telegraph
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Milne, who had third-degree burns over 85% of her body, lived and thrived.
In fact, she‘s still alive today.
A few weeks ago, one of her six daughters, Miranda Milne, emailed a request to Hawke‘s Bay Today asking if copies existed of the newspapers and photo of the day.
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Intrigued by the request, we went looking and found it.
It led us as a newspaper down a path to help the Milnes meet some of the rescuers on that fateful day.
Fay Milne was rescued from the window of the house early on the morning of April 8, 1975. Her partner Paul Kake died in the blaze.
A well-liked cook at the nearby Cabana Hotel, she is now in care in Hamilton and unable to talk for this article.
Fay was rescued by the first firefighters on the scene, who made the dramatic decision to fetch the 35ft (10m) ladder from the truck, carry it up the precarious steps and launch it up to the window, rather than go first for the hoses.
Firefighters Peter Draper, Brent Single and Neil Meehan were on the first truck, called to investigate a “smell of smoke” about 3am, while Single‘s brother, Paul, was also in the crews that attended the blaze.
Draper and Brent Single, both retired and still in Napier, vividly recall the fire, while Meehan died four years after the fire, at the age of 49, a victim of cancer.
Single went to Hamilton last Sunday to meet Miranda Milne, one of the survivor’s six daughters, and Draper the next day visited the house, still standing but its upper levels removed and renovated after the fire.
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Draper met the current tenant and landlord, and showed how the ladder had been hoisted in the dark and treacherous conditions.
A landing added to the home disguises how it looked at the time.
“We were called to investigate a smell of smoke in the area,” he recalled. “When we got out of the truck we could smell smoke, but we couldn’t see any fire.”
“We went a few steps up, could see the glow at the back of the house, and then the woman at the window, screaming for help,” he said.
“There was no time to get the hose, we had to get the ladder and get up there.”
The truck, with a short wheel base, had been built especially for the terrain and conditions of the Napier hills, and is understood to be currently in Wellington and likely to be back in Napier for the fire brigade‘s 150th celebrations.
Atop was the heavy, wooden extending ladder, and in their rush the firemen placed it the wrong way around, adding to the difficulties.
With Draper and Brent Single holding the base, Meehan rushed up the ladder to the woman, who was later in the day pictured in the Napier Daily Telegraph, silhouetted by the flames, apparently calling for help and ready to jump to what the surviving officers believe would have been a fatal fall.
Assisted by Meehan, she came down the ladder, and was rushed to Napier Public Hospital, then to the burns unit at Hutt Hospital, and ultimately spent more than a year in hospitals for multiple grafts and surgeries.
Her hospitalisation meant she never got to meet and thank the firefighters, who also wondered what had become of her.
She‘s still alive, at the age of 88 and in care in Hamilton, while attending firemen Draper and the Single brothers, all retired after 50 years of service, are also still alive.
Last Sunday, Miranda Milne, who was just 8 and in Hamilton at the time of the fire, got to meet the Single brothers, and for the first time hear the full story of what had happened.
She thanked the men for her mum’s survival and the years with her daughters’ children and grandchildren.
Some family had thought their mum had to leap from the building.
Miranda Milne said: “It was good to meet with Brent, and the recollection of the fire from him and his brother, was very important.
“The information they shared was valuable as part of our family history.”
“I was impressed by their dedication to the firefighting job – generational in their family – in their DNA, you could say,” she said.
“They were so young when they attended, and it obviously had a lasting impact.
“I was glad to share with them that Fay had lived and enjoyed time with her daughters, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren. It seems they don’t get the ‘after’ story very often in their line of work.”
Brent Single, who lives in Napier, as does Draper, said: “It was so great to hear what Fay had been through and was still alive”.
The men, and Meehan’s daughter, who also lives in Napier, all said they were amazed to hear Fay Milne was still alive.
