Explosion injures four

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32706, 8 September 1971, Page 1

Explosion injures four

(N.Z. Press Association)

INVERCARGILL, z September 7.

A Mokotua farmer and his three children were seriously injured this morning by the explosion of a tin of detonators they were examining.

Andrew Merry Barker, aged 47, and his three children, Julie Ruth Barker, aged 14, Wendy Anne Barker, aged 16, and Wayne John Barker, aged 19, were this evening undergoing emergency surgery at Kew Hospital, Invercargill. The hospital reported their conditions as “serious.” It is believed that Mr Barker had both hands blown off by the explosion, which happened in a yard beside the Barker farmhouse shortly after 9 a.m.

The blast was heard threequarters of a mile away by a farmhand who works on the Barker farm.

"I was working in the bush

about three-quarters of a mile away from the house when I heard a loud bang, 4 ’ he said. “I thought it sounded like gelignite. When I came back to the house, I saw two ambulances.” Mr Barker and his children were standing in the yard beside a trailer attached to a utility vehicle. Mr Barker, it is believed, found the tin of detonators in a shed beside the yard and took them over to the trailer. He and his children were grouped round the trailer, probably examining the detonators, when the tin—which could have held 100 detonators—exploded.

Another man, Colin Earnest Shand, of Twizel, was standing with his back to the trailer, working on a set of discs, when the blast occurred. Although Mr Shand was only about 15ft away from the explosion, he was not hurt.

Ambulances were called. Soon after, the injured persons, who were still able to walk, were rushed to Kew Hospital, about 14 miles away.

A team of three surgeons, including Dr J. R. McKinnon, an eye specialist from Dunedin, worked from 3 pan. until after midnight on three members of the family. Mr Barker had one hand and half the other amputated, and suffered injury to one eye and lacerations to the face, said a hospital spokesman.

His son has lost one eye and possibly the sight in the other, had one hand amputated, and suffered a perforated bowel and superficial chest injuries. At midnight, Wendy Barker

was still undergoing surgery for extensive damage to both eyes. Doctors said they did not expect that Julie Barker would need surgery at this stage.