WATER MAIN BURSTS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 153, 26 December 1935, Page 9

WATER MAIN BURSTS

RIDER THROWN FROM HORSE

With a loud report, a lOin watermain burst on Monday afternoon in Green Lane Road, Auckland, outside thei gates leading to EUerslie Racecourse, and so great was the force' of the explosion that the surface of the road was broken, and a section of the main, three feet in length, was hurled into the air, states the "New Zealand Herald,": The flying metal cut through several telegraph wires, before it landed, over a chain away, on the other side of the road. J

It was fortunate that no one was injured. A horseman who had just emerged from the racecourse had a lucky, escape. He was only a few yards away when the explosion occurred, and his horse was startled. The animal reared suddenly, throwing his rider, who, "however, was not injured. The horse galloped off up Clonbern Road, but was easily caught. Stone and rubble scattered in every direction within- a radius of nearly two chains, and streams of water were evidence of the explosion. A number of City Council workmen were in the vicinity, and one of them described the flying length of pipe as "a bolt from the blue."

The water main had only just been laid, and it burst when being charged from the Mount Hobsort reservoir. The water was quickly turned off, and the hole in the road, which .was-four feet square, temporarily filled in.