OUTBREAK AT MELBOURNE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 136, 6 December 1926, Page 9

OUTBREAK AT MELBOURNE

CARGO OF FROZEN MUTTON

MEN OVEECOME BY AMMONIA FUMES.

(United Press Association.—Copyright.) MELBOUBNE, sth December. The steamer Idomeneus, en route from Sydney to London, caught fire, which was extinguished boforo she reached Melbourne. Whilo the vessel was being unloaded at- Melbourne the fire broke out afresh in refrigerators packed with frozen mutton. Before the fire brigades arrived volunteers attempted to quell tho outbreak. Nino stevedores working on the ship and six firemen wero overcome by ammonia fumes and . taken to hospital. There were pathetic scenes when tho victims wore brought on deck. They were seized by convulsions and rolled about in intense agony. Foreman Jorgensen went below three times in stifling fumes, each time bringing up an unconscious man. He returned a fourth timo and was seized b>* convulsions as the result of the fumes, and fell from tho ladder into the hold, where he lay for half an hour before ho was rescued by firemen in Bmoke helmets. The ship's' hatches wero sealed, and steam turned on from the ship's boilers, in the hope of quelling the outbreak, the cause of which is unknown. Most'of the cargo was removed from the vessel, the waterside workers having agreed to work overtime in order to get the mutton stored'in the refrigerating chambers on tho wharf.