OIL DRUM EXPLODES

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 190, 8 May 1937, Page 8

OIL DRUM EXPLODES

♦ Damage After Lighting of Fire YOUNG MEN IN COURT ; I Two young men were charged in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, yester. day with mischief, in wilfully damag- I ing a Public Works Department shelter, tool-box, oil-drum, air compressor, and 25 gallons of fuel-oil, to the value of £3/17/6. Sub-Inspector C. E. Roach said the boys had left Wellington to cycle to Masterton. It came on to rain, and they took shelter in a Public Works she'd on Rimutaka Hill. They lit a fire in the shed, but it smoked badly and they kicked the embers outside. They broke a tool-box to keep the fire going, rolled a drum of fuel-oil over, and turned the tap on. It blazed up fiercely, and the boys fled. In a minute there was a raging fire and the drum exploded. The air-compressor machine ( was damaged. One of the youths explained that tliev bad been only two of a party, the others being equally responsible. The magistrate, Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., said that they would have to pay for the damage. There was, of course, no suggestion of criminality. He would not convict them, but would adjourn the case for a fortnight to enable a tarpaulin muster to be made among the party.