"GET OUT—GAS!"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1941, Page 8

"GET OUT—GAS!"

ESCAPE OF CHLORINE

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

The occupants -of Chancery Chambers in" "O'Connell Street, were startled from their work at. 10.30 this morning by a cry "Get out of the building —gas!" As they wonderingly obeyed, the unmistakable odour of chlorine assailed them. What had happened was that the tap of a cylinder of chlorine stored in the laboratory on the top floor had jammed when it was opened, and*the laboratory assistants, surrounded by clouds of highly poisonous gas, had been unable to close it. Taking the only safe course, they warned all the tenants of the building to get outside until the gas had blown away. Two men inhaled enough of the gas to necessitate their removal to hospital by an ambulance and a number of other persons in the building received enough to make them cough and splutter. Those taken to hospital were John Hayes, 24, an employee of Candy Filters, Ltd., in whose laboratory the cylinder was stored, and J. Bunby. It was stated at noon that neither man was in a serious condition.

The tap of the cylinder was eventually turned off by a man wearing a gas mask, and at 11.30, after firemen had pronounced it safe to enter the building, all the tenants returned to their offices.