DETONATOR EXPLODES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 143, 14 March 1938, Page 11

DETONATOR EXPLODES

Child’s Fingers Blown Off By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, March 11. Through the explosion of a detonator With which he was playing, Robert Turner, aged seven, elder child of Mr. and Mrs. G. Turner, Swanson, had the tips of his thumb and first three fingers of his left hand blown off. It is believed the boy applied a match to the detonator. Unusual circumstances surrounded the accident, which occurred at the back door of the boy’s home. After a walk along the road the previous evening in company with his sister Elizabeth, aged five, the boy returned with a number of articles, which he stated he had found on the roadside. His father examined one and discovered it to be a spent .22 cartridge shell. The others were similar in shape and size and Mr. Turner concluded that they would be harmless playthings. Actually he had examined the only empty cartridge shell among about eight live detonators. When they were milking the parents heard an explosion, followed by cries, from the direction of the house, and on investigating they found the two children near the back door, the boy with his left hand badly injured and the girl with slight scratches on her legs. A number of detonators were on the ground and the remains of a matchbox which had been left inside the house were strewn about.