12 Overcome By Gas

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30762, 28 May 1965, Page 3

12 Overcome By Gas

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 27.

A full inquiry will be held into a gas main breakage in Wellington today which resulted in 12 persons being treated at Wellington Hospital. The inquiry will be instituted by the Wellington City Council and the Wellington Gas Company. Mr Matthew Kennedy, manager of the Gas Company, said tonight the effects of the breakage had been the most serious and spectacular for years.

Gas flowed into shops, offices and a hotel near the Cuba street-Manners street intersection after City Council workmen accidentally ripped a section of the gas main at 6.30 a.m. Mr Kennedy said an emergency team had been rushed to the spot, but found the job too serious to handle without a full crew.

The gas leak had been cut down by reducing pressure and “gagging” the break with rock and earth.

The police roped off the intersection to traffic and warned pedestrians not to smoke as the gas hissed into the street.

The four-storey McKenzies department store building, about 15 yards from the break, was the most affected by the escaping gas. Shop assistants smelt gas when they arrived at work and the store manager, Mr A. E. Johnson, ordered the staff to take 20-minute breaks outside the building every 20 minutes. However, after one shop assistant collapsed at her counter, and dozens more had staggered from the building suffering from minor gassing, the store was closed for the day at 9.30 a.m. Twelve of the staff, 11 saleswomen and a storeman, were treated at Wellington Hospital for gas poisoning.

AU have since been discharged.

One of the staff said tonight: “It was like a battlefield. People were clutching their throats and staggering from the building. The smell was getting worse when the manager ordered the store closed and evacuated us outside.” Ambulance men treated many of the shop assistants on the spot. Mrs J. Henry, of Newtown, who was taken to hospital, said tonight: “The gas smelt dreadful on all the floors. I started feeling sick as soon as I arrived. My throat felt sore and I had a queer feeling in my stomach. Forgotten Mi'S Henry, who works on the building’s fourth floor, was forgotten in the evacuation.

Firemen searching for people who may have fainted before the store was evacuated, found her weak and ill, still trying to get out of the building. Mrs E. E. Townsend, of Miramar, said she felt herself fainting when the evacuation order came. "As I tried to walk outside, I staggered from side to side. I felt drunk and could not walk. It was a shocking experience. We all might have been killed.”

The store manager, Mr Johnson, today praised the

police, fire and ambulance services for their prompt arrival.

“We rang the 111 telephone service and within seconds there were four ambulances here, five fire engines and 50 policemen. They did a wonderful job.” Co-operation The acting-chief officer of the Wellington Fire Brigade, Mr T. E. Reid, said today the emergency illustrated how the fire brigade, ambulance, police and traffic officers could work together. “Once the alarm was given we all worked in smoothly,” he said.

The chief engineer of the Gas Company, Mr C. H. Edwards, said he doubted whether the effect of the broken main would have been noticed by consumers. Pressure had been reduced slightly till the main was isolated, he said. Mr A. D. Martin, actingcity engineer, said he would investigate the exact circumstances of the accident.

A store spokesman said the Gas Company had twice been asked to check if gas accumulation in the store was reaching dangerous proportions, but no check had been made, he said. Mr Kennedy said tonight he could not comment on this because he had not been informed.