RADIO EXPLODES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 148, 26 June 1939, Page 8

RADIO EXPLODES.

LIGHTNING'S TRICK.

WOMAN SUFFERS FROM SHOCK

INCIDENT AT ST. HELEBR'S,

Lightning played another bizarre trick on Saturday evening when it struck an electric power transformer at St. Helier's Bay and, presumably, travelled about 200 yards along the power lines to explode a radio in the front room of a house owned by Mrs. A. Dent, at 15, McArthur Street. An occupant of the room, Mrs. M. E. Saunders, though uninjured, suffered from the effects of shock and deafness for a considerable period. The flash of lightning, which came almost simultaneously with a resounding peal of thunder, occurred about 7.45 p.m. At the time Mrs. Saunders was resting on a single bed with her head at the end farthest from the wall. The radio was placed on a stand against the foot of the bed within three or four inches of her head and she was enjoying the programme. Suddenly there was a deafening explosion and the room was filled with smoke. Residents in nearby houses heard the noise and people in the same house, alarmed by the crash, were still more alarmed when they heard Mrs. Saunders crying out for help.

When they rushed into the room Mrs. Saunders was in a state of nervous prostration and could not hear a word. She was given immediate attention and was obviously suffering severely from the shock.

Examination of the radio and the room revealed the quirks that lightning plays. The transformer in the radio was blown; the lights in the house were dead; the fitting that leads the wires from the roof in the room in which the radio exploded was torn out and the wires ruined. The main switch in the house was responsible for a minor explosion when the porcelain fuse blocks were blown out and smashed, travelling right across the kitchenette.

The heat engendered from the radio explosion was shown by the fact that the wood was heavily seared on one part of the cabinet of the instrument, and several slats at the end of the bed on which Mrs. Saunders was lying were stripped of their paint and scorched. The blow-out on the power transformer supplying the house* in the locality meant that several scores of dwellings were in darkness. There were also other power failures in the district.