CRUSHED TO DEATH

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 144, 20 June 1942, Page 4

CRUSHED TO DEATH

FIREMAN'S FATE COLLAPSE OF ROOF (0.C.) SYDNEY, June 17. Michael Laurence Griffin, 34, married, a fire brigadesman, was crushed to death last Thursday afternoon during a fire in the die stamping room, metal storeroom, staff quarters and part of the offices of R. B. Davies I'ty., Ltd, hardware manufacturers, Marrickvilie. Another fireman named Cruse was badly injured. Griffin, with four other firemen, was extinguishing flames in the die stamping rcom when the roof collapsed and walls lined with stacks of strip metal caved in. The other men leapt clear, but Griffin was buried Bft under hundreds cf tons of steel. Firemen worked under torch and flare light for more than two and a half hours with steel-cutting apparatus and acetylene lamps before Griffin could be extricated.

The injured man was standing on top of a metal heap holding an electric lamp over the operations when he accidentally touched the metal base of the light with wet hands and received the full force of the current. He stiffened, screamed and fell from the pile of metal. Ambulance officers standing by immediately applied artificial respiration and rushed him, in a critical condition. to the Marrickville Hospital.

The fire started when crude oil running from a leak in a 600-gallon tank came in contact with a furnace in the die stamping room and burst into flames. Workmen rushed from all parts of the plant to move drums of highly inflammable lacquer stored in the stamping room. Factory A.R.P. squads formed bucket brigades and manned stirrup pumps in an attempt to stop the fire spreading to sheds where explosives were stored. Workmen went into the hlazlncr stamping room and the dressing rooms and fought desperately to put out the flames.

Prints, documents and records in danger of being destroyed were rushed to safety by other staff members. Workmen who then clambered over the debris to their dressing rooms found that their clothes, overcoats, bags and other belongings had been destroyed. Many of them were forced to borrow their tram fares home from neighbouring cottages, and caught trams clad only in singlets and shorts.