Worker injured at gas works

Press, 11 December 1981, Page 4

Worker injured at gas works

A Christchurch man is in the intensive-care unit at Christchurch Hospital after falling about nine metres .from a structure being demolished at the Christchurch Gas Works in Moorhouse Avenue.

He is Dennis Rarere, whose condition last evening was described as serious, but stable The accident happened about 1 p.m. on Wednesday. The structure from which Mr Rarere fell was a gas purifier, which comprises several steel boxes mounted on a steel girder framework. It is believed that Mr Rarere fell through a section of the steel flooring of one of the boxes after the flooring had been cut by another worker. The accident is being investigated by the Labour Department. ■ Workers at the site met

Labourers’ Union officials at the site yesterday to discuss safety. The secretary >. of the, Canterbury sub-branch of the -' union, Mr R. A. Lowe, said) that the workers left it in the hands of the union to get a safety supervisor the supervise the area where Mr ~ Rarere and about eight other workers have been demolish- ' ing part of the gas works. Mr " Lowe said that there was already a safety supervisor ’ on another part of the site, supervising about 10 but one supervisor was insufficient. , The union had been assured by the contractor con- . cerned that a safety super- . visor would be appointed after Christmas, but the,' union wanted one appointed.; sooner, because the accident;. on Wednesday , was the'; second in the last two months.