PREMATURE EXPLOSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 293, 11 December 1925, Page 10

PREMATURE EXPLOSION.

THREE KILLED IN QUARRY.

VICTIMS HURLED TO DEATH.

TWO STILL IN HOSPITAL.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, December 4.

The quarry accident at Bankstown, which accounted for the lives of three men and placed two others in hospital critically injured, was one of the most disastrous happenings of its kind in the history of New South Wales. Phillips' quarry, off Brunker Road, Bankstown. was "the scene of the accident, which occurred shortly before knock off time last Monday.

The quarry is about 60 yards long, 50 yards wide, and is sunk to a depth which varies in parts from lo to 25 feet. The men concerned were Claude Burton, of Hyde Park, Lidcombe; Jack Whyman (19), of Bankstown; Allan Phillips, (19), of Potts' Hill, Regent Park, Lidcombe; Morgan Jones, of Cabramatta; and Arthur O'Brien.

They were working together on a ledge about six feet below the brink of the quarry. Here they had sunk two holes, in one of which they had already placed a charge of gelignite, and on the other they were still working. It was their intention to dislodge" an enormous quantity of sandstone with the shots —eventually considerably more than 100 tons was blown away from the side of the quarry —and they were tamping the second shot home tightly. Something unforeseen occurred, and both charges exploled prematurely with a roar.

At the moment of the explosion, the whole five of the men grouped together on the ledge were thrown high ill the air. Whyman and O'Brien were lifted right over the brink of the quarry, and were found later, about ten yards apart, thirty yards from the edge.

The others were blown in the opposite direction, and landed close together on the floor of the quarry, with huge rocks and boulders raining down all round them.

Burton and Whyman were killed instantly, the former's shoulder being ripped right away by the force of tie explosion.

The other men were badly smashed, especially about the face and chest, where they seem to have stopped most of the force of the shots.

Other men at work in the quarry raced to their assistance, and an ambulance wagon, which had to come nine miles, travelled the distance in 12 minutes.

The injured were hurried to the nearest hospital, where three doctors were waiting by that time to attend them. Phillips, who is the son of the proprietor, died about an hour after admission.

The others, showing wonderful stamina, though still regarded as critical cases, have shown remarkable improvement, and are still alive in hospital. Mr. Phillips, owner of the quarry, is one of the largest road contractors in the State, and his son, who died in the hospital, was in charge of the quarry at the time of the explosion. The boy, his father stated after the accident, was really an expert in the use of explosives, and he could not understand how the explosion had occurred prematurely.

Burton, who was one of those killed instantly, leaves a wife and young- child. He, too, was an experienced "quarryman, having worked at that vocation since he was 14 years of age.