Dairy owner hoses down smouldering men

Press, 27 June 1987, Page 8

Dairy owner hoses down smouldering men

PA Wellington After an explosion rocked his shop, Mr Naresh Hari, looked outside and saw two men in shredded trousers running screaming from a Petone service station yesterday. Mr Hari was just about to collect his milk at 7 a.m:. ; '■■ .. V

“They were smoldering — there was smoke coming off them,” he said. Skin on the face and hands, of one of the men was “actually peeling off,” he said.

“I told them to come round the back so that I could hose them down.

"One guy, I got the water on him in time. But the other guy, with the backside burnt off his trousers, ran into the dairy. “I hope he’s O.K. He looked pretty bad.” , The two injured men, the station’s manager, Mr Alex Mansfield, and a Mobil tanker . owner-driver, Mr Doug Steward were taken by Wellington Free Ambulance to Hutt Hospital; '• They were admitted to the hospital’s plastic surgery ward.. Hospital staff later yesterday said both were in a dition. .. ■ ~ -itiiqifr

Their injuries were the result of a huge explosion at the petrol station on a corner near the heart of Petone’s shopping centre. Mr Hari said many people in the area had at first thought there had been an earthquake. “You could feel it,” he said. ' • . ""

The? explosion, which happened as ’Mr Stewart was filling the station’s underground petrol tanks, went through the roof, burning the M off the Mobil sign, blowing out windows and severely damaging a brick wall at the back of the. station. Witnesses saw flames leaping up five; metres. A spokesman for Mobil said company engineers and technical- staff were investigating. «

Mr ■ Stewart had been discharging a full delivery of 30,000 litres, the spokesman said. . “About 25,000 litres had already been discharged and the driver was unloading the final compartment when the explosion occurred.

Preliminary investigations indicated that petrol vapours were lying close to the ground, said the spokesman. ‘ Calm conditions may have contri-

buted to the incident.

“Vapours discharge to the air from a vent above the service station canopy but conditions allowed the vapours to drift back to ground level.” The explosion was caused by an unkown source of ignition, he said.