TWO EXPLOSIONS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21404, 21 February 1935, Page 12

TWO EXPLOSIONS

* Interior of Pumping Station Wrecked THREE MEN INJURED U'KESS ASSOCIATION TKUEO'.IAV . AUCKLAND, February 20. Fumes and petrol which had found its way into the Freeman's Bay sewerage system caused two loud explosions in the Auckland and Suburban Drainage Board's pumping station in Fanshawe street this afternoon. The interior of the station was wrecked and three members of the staff who were on duty received injuries. One of them, Roderick McLeod, an electrician, who was working in a pumping chamber at the bottom of a manhole 40 feet below the floor of the station, had a miraculous escape, and it was only his coolness and judgment that saved him from almost certain death. The fumes of benzine had been noticed about the station for some days, and members of the staff were warned against taking any unnecessary risks. It is believed that benzine was entering the sewer system somewhere on the Freeman's Bay reclamation, and careful investigations were being made to locate the causa. F. Wilson, the drainage board's foreman, and Owen Wilson, second assistant at the station, were in the control room at the street level this afternoon, and McLeod was at the bottom of the pumping room shajp.. when the accumulated gases exploded with a terriffic roar. This was followed almost immediately by a second explosion. The first explosion closed the door of the control room, trapping Owen Wilson and F. Wilson, both of whom were badly burned, and received severe shock. The second explosion, however, blew the dnor out. and thev were able to escape. The room was now burning fiercely, the flames being fed by gases ascending a sewage tank shaft alongside the pumping room shaft. An engine from the citv fire station responded to an immediate call, and the fire was quickly suppresses, mainly by the use of chemical extinguishers.

Remarkable Escane In the meanwhile, McLcod hac been alarmed by the terriffic explosion above, and almost immediately the gases which had found their way into the pumping shaft exploded, filling the pumping room with scorching flames and leaving overpowering fumes behind. McLeod crouched low, seeking any air that might be left, and covered his head with his singlet. Noticing that the cloud of white vapour left by the explosion in the shaft was slowly ascending, he started to climb cautiously behind it, and almost 10 minutes after the first explosion he emerged through the trap-door in the floor of the control room, to the amazement of the firemen and others who had been trying to find him in the sewage shaft. The three men were taken to the Auckland Hospital. It was found that Owen Wilson was badly burned about the head and arms, and his condition is serious. He is a single man, residing at One Tree Hill. F. Wilson, who is married, was suffering from burns about the face and arms, but after treatment he was able to return to the pumping station. Roderick McLeod, a married man, was suffering mainly from shock, his only burns bein? to thf> hands, as a result of grasping an exposed electric wire when he was climbing out of the shaft. He was also able to leave the hospital after treatment.