Explosion victims ‘lucky’

Press, 11 October 1982, Page 6

Explosion victims ‘lucky’

PA , Invercargill Two elderly women who escaped serious injury in a caravan gas explosion in Invercargill reflected yesterday on their luck. Mrs Dorothy Tyson, aged 06, of Christchurch, said yesterday that it was fortunate she and her companion slept with the window open.- or they would have been gassed during the night. The explosion occurred at 6.30 a.m. when Mrs Tyson got up to switch on a bar heater which she plugged into the gas cooker. How-

ever, the cooker had not been switched off properly and gas which had collected in the caravan was ignited. Mrs Tyson, and her companion, Mrs Anne Craig, aged 78, also of Christchurch, were admitted to Southland Hospital. They are both now in a comfortable condition, but it may be 10 days before they leave. Mrs Tyson said from her hospital bed yesterday that she stayed in the caravan immediately after the explosion. “Anne was telling me to

get out, but I stayed in to try to stop the fire. She was moving fast out of the bed and she shot out of the door straight away," Mrs Tyson saidr “My friend jumped up with a pillow to her face, but the pillow fell away on to the heater. She ran out with her arms over her face, and they got burnt, but not her face. “I unplugged the heater and threw it out. but by that time my dressing gown was burning up, and so I sat down on the bunk and poured cold water over my legs."