Sulphur Burns In Dunedin

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31091, 21 June 1966, Page 3

Sulphur Burns In Dunedin

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, June 20.

Two explosions started a fire and injured a worker in the Dominion Fertiliser Company’s works at Ravensbourne just before 1.15 p.m. today. About 50 firemen with nine fire appliances and a portable pump brought the fire under control by 3.30 p.m. A sulphur worker, William George Smith, aged 48, of 4 De Lacy street, Ravensbourne, was admitted to the Wakari Hospital with minor

facial burns and was discharged a few hours later. Mr Smith was standing behind the sulphur crushing plant when the explosions occurred. He said he heard a small bang, then the first explosion, then the second. He described the second explosion as “a sheet of flame which came straight towards me. The fire was burning in the air, and I raced out of the building.” A foreign body in sulphur near the acid plant was believed to have caused the first explosion which shook the whole building, said the works manager, Mr R. A. Armstrong. The first explosion was big

enough to get past explosionproof doors and cause a second explosion in the main sulphur stack, which blew large sections out of two sides of the building and scattered sections of roofing over nearby buildings. The main sulphur stack caught fire and several smaller fires broke out nearby. Both explosions were heard clearty in many parts of Dunedin. Firemen not wearing oxygen equipment were quickly repelled by the acrid fumes. More breathing equipment was distributed and firemen returned to the seat of the fire.

Billowing smoke and fumes from the works created unpleasant conditions in some hill suburbs. A breeze kept the smoke away from the middle of the city. Masked firemen, with thick layers of soggy sulphur clinging to their masks, clothes and boots, ploughed their way through the hills of sulphur, dampening it with a fine spray of water.

The fire was still being fought early tonight.

The seat of the fire was fought with sea-water pumped from the nearby loading wharf.

"It was the most spectacular and unusual fire we have attended down here,” said Chief Fire Officer F. A. Hardy. “We did not Strike any major problems." There have been several small fires at the works in the last few years.