ROOMING-HOUSE EXPLOSION

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27435, 23 August 1954, Page 10

ROOMING-HOUSE EXPLOSION

’Two Persons Injured, One Critically PART OF BUILDING WRECKED (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 22. i A man and his wife were admitted I to the Auckland Hospital after an exi plosion had occurred in their room in : an apartment house at 10 Carlton Gore ' road, Auckland, about 7 pm. on • Saturday. The man waa critically ini jured. The victims are:— Bengt Viktor Nilsson, aged 29, an [ engineer, and Z Gladys Nilsson, aged 30. ,' A call from the house asking for a doctor, ambulance, and fire engine was received at the St. John Ambulance station at Pitt street shortly ■ after 7 p.m. Station Officer N. Jack, the driver of the first ambulance,, arrived to find Mr Nilsson, who was suffering from multiple injuries, lying at the top of a staircase near their room. Mrs Nilsson, whose hands and feet werer injured, was in a nearby ’bathroom. * The first-floor room occupied by the' couple was almost completely wrecked. A large hole was blown in ‘ the floor, and the furniture was smashed. A wrecked four-gallon 'tin 1 which is believed to have contained 1 kerosene, was lying in one corner. The cause of the explosion is not ! known, but its force was such that the ceiling was lifted about two inches. A 1 hole was also blown in the ceiling • of a room beneath the apartment. The > tenants, Mr and Mrs C. S. Simpson, were sitting in the room when the aci cident occurred. Windows in the Nilssons’ room were blown out,, and shelves on a wall of the adjoining apartment were torn from their fixtures. Crockery was smashed .and particles of glass were found embedded in the walls. Mr. Nilsson was rushed to hospital ‘ and an emergency operation was per- ' formed. He suffered fractures of both ■ legs, an arm, and a hip. He was wounded in the throat and eyes, 'and suffered other serious injuries. His condition is grave. Mrs Nilsson’s con- : dition is satisfactory 1 When the explosion occurred, the room was filled with smoke, but there : was no fire. Almost all the tenants of • the apartment house were in their 1 rooms at the time. Certain articles have been taken for [ analysis, and the police are investi--1 gating the matter.