PETROL IGNITES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 201, 26 August 1939, Page 12

PETROL IGNITES.

FARMER SUFFERS BURNS.

TRAPPED IX BURNING SHKD. Severe burns to the arms and legs «ere suffered by Mr. Frederick Barker Dawson, single, aged 2ti, son of Mr. and Mrs. S. Daw.-on, of" Riverview. Mahnraiiii. about seven mile#; from AVarkworth, when lie was trapped by lire in a small enclosed milking shed on his father's farm yesterday.

Mr. Dawson had syphonp.l some benzine out of a drum into a milking machine engine, which he was preparing for milking. After the operation was completed he continued making adjustments to the engine, but he did not notice that the ]>etrol tube had become dislodged and a stream of petrol was trickling across the floor.

Directly outside the engine-room stood a copper under which a fire had been lit to boil water. The fire ignited the stream of petrol and the flames spread rapidly hack to the drum in the engine-room, which, before long, was enveloped in flames.

Mr. Dawson's only means of escape was cut off and, exercising great presence of mind, he wrapped himself in old coat* which were hanging in the shed. He thus saved himself from more extensive injuries.

The fire was first seen liv Mr. Dawson's mother, who called her other son, Mr. Leonard Dawson. He went to the adjoining separator room, broke the window to enter it and obtained an axe. With this he pulled off a sheet of corrugated iron from the wall of the burning room and rescued his brother, who was on the verge of collapse.

After receiving medical attention, the injured man was carried on a stretcher over hilly and slippery paddocks. He was then taken another half a mile on a motor truck to the waiting St. Johu ambulance from Auckland, which conveyed him to the Auckland Hospital, where he underwent an operation. Ilis condition is as well as can be expected.