CITY EXPLOSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 22, 26 January 1934, Page 7

CITY EXPLOSION.

CAUSE UNKNOWN. WINDOWS SHATTERED. GAS IN ABANDONED SEWER? ALBERT STREET EXCITEMENT. With the noise of a naval salvo, and accompanied by darting flame and heavy clouds of smoke, two explosions from an abandoned sewer occurred in Albert Street, between Wyndham and Swanson Streets, at .3 o'clock this morning, shattered 25 windows in seven different buildings, and sent a manhole cap flying toward the Queen Street shopping area. Loss of life would have been inevitable had ' workmen engaged on drainage scheme operations in the street been on duty at that time. The fire brigade received a call, and the police were communicated with.

The precise cause of the explosion is puzzling the experts. The theory tentatively held is that gas of some description accumulated in the sewer, and in a manner unknown became ignited. One resident of the locality states that at 10 p.m. he detected a smell which he associated with sewer odours, and after the explosions a smell which reminded him of carbon gas. A subsequent examination of the 12in gas main which passes over the sewer down Wyndham Street was made,- but no leakages were located. It was reported also that the electric power cables in the vicinity were

negative. For so early an hour tHere .was a surprisingly large crowd of sightseers quickly on the scene of the excitement, which was the centre of the roadway in Albert Street, about 60ft from the manhole at the intersection with Wyndham Street and 400 ft from Swanson Street, and flush with the tunnel shaft which the City Council workmen are driving in connection with the city stormwater drainage scheme. The sewer, which runs below the surface toward Swanson Street, at a depth of about 14ft, was abandoned 15 years ago, and has no relation to the present drainage operations. The view was expressed this morning that had the shaft not been sunk, and the explosion occurred, the whole of the roadway would have been blown- up. In effect, the shaft had canalised the force of the explosion.

Automatic Cannon. As part of the stormwater drainage scheme in Albert Street, a tunnel shaft is being driven, and it is now down to a level of 25ft, with a wide opening at the top. When, during excavation, the main of the abandoned sewer was passed, the vertical opening thus formed below the surface was timbered up_ in the usual way, there being sufficient space for air passages. There were no workmen on the job when the explosion occurred. The disused sewer acted as a combustion chamber, and the discharge had escapes at both ends, although the full force of it necessarily went up the tunnel shaft. At the point where the sewer joined the shaft, a black deposit resembling soot clung to what remained of the timbering there, and portion of this has been scraped off for analysis. An examination of the interior of the abandoned main from the shaft to the manhole revealed the brickwork to he intact. '

Many Broken Windows. The noise of the explosions was heard over a wide area, it being stated that one household at Shore Road, Remuera, was awakened by it. The full force was felt by the Shakespeare Hotel, on the corner of Albert and Wyndham Streets, although the windows of sixother buildings were damaged as well. Eleven windows in the hotel were shattered, five of them bqing on the ground floor, on which the bar is situated. The bar Btock was not damaged. There were gaping, jagged holes in two bedroom windows on tie first floor, in three on the second floor and one on the top. The damage is estimated at £30. The adjoining garage of Seabrook, Fowlds, Ltd., had four windows broken on the first floor, and on the other side of Albert Street two windows were broken in the premises of the Ring Proprietary Company, Ltd., and three windows in a pie shop on the corner. Next door, in Wyndham Street, the Commercial Import Company lost a window, and in the shop of J. Mackey, saddler, on the opposite side of Wyndham Street, three windows were smashed. One was broken in the adjoining shop of Anderson and Dustin. saw doctors.

"Like a Thunderclap." One of the first on the scene of thf trouble was Mr. J. Hook, the licensei' of the Shakespeare Hotel, who said ho had been awakened by what appears. 1 to be the smell of escaping gas. "I always sleep with my windows open."' he explained to-day, "and 1 could smell the gas, and then there was an awful crash of glass. There was no shake,, but a noise like a thunderclap. It was followed by more crasliing of glass, and many pieces fell from the window on to the bedroom floor. There was glass everywhere outside, and I saw heavy clouds of smoke coming up from' the ehaft."

Sightseers gathered from nowhere. They included a lodger from a neighbouring hotel, who stated that when he reached Albert Street, after hearing two very loud explosions, he eaw flames shooting up from the sliaft. "I was waiting for the third explosion," he added. "The litter in the street made it appear as though there had been a riot. There was broken glass everywhere. And what a mess! The timbering had been blown from the winch over the shaft, and the cap of the manhole was rolling down Wyndham Street. It was just as well there were no workmen on the job at the time."

Official Inspection. The tunnel shaft and the abandoned sewer were officially inspected to-day lithe city engineer, Mr. J. Tyler, in company with Mr. H. P. Burton, chairman of the works committee of the City Council, and Mr. G. Grey Campbell, chairman of the public services committee. After a workman had crawled alone the sewer main and reported that the "brickwork was not damaged, possible causes of the explosion were is cussed. Mr. Tyler said later t.hat inquiries would be made wii > to determining the exact cause of the explosion which could e^.s P re thA ; happened had nothing whitin Sn with the "stormwater draicage' operations' on which work would proceed as t usual.