GRANDSTAND FIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 86, 8 October 1941, Page 10

GRANDSTAND FIRE

PETROL STORED

COMMENT AT INQUEST

(P.A.)

DUNEDIN, October 7,

Comment that the City Corporation had shown considerable laxity in allowing petrol to be stored under the main grandstand at Logan Park was made by the Coroner, Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., at the conclusion of an inquest into the death of Thomas Walter Ford, aged 29, whose remains were found in the debris of a fire which destroyed the grandstand on the morning of Sunday, September 14. The evidence of ten witnesses vas heard, and the Coroner found that the deceased had died from asphyxia and shock in an accidental fire in the grandstand. James Knox, caretaker at Logan Park, described how after the fire he and a detective examined a body which had been found in the debris. It was lying in what had been a petrol storeroom and was recumbent across a fourgallon tin. Witness said when he left the building on the previous night all doors were securely locked and there was no trace of fire in the building. Other evidence related to the identity and movements of the deceased and to the practice of storing petrol under the grandstand in a forty-four gallon drum. After the Coroner had given his verdict he mentioned the storage of petrol from the point of view of the City Council. SHOULD SET EXAMPLE. "It behoves the City Corporation, as the licensing authority under the Explosives and Dangerous Goods Act, to show an example in the storage of dangerous goods which .nclude petrol," he said. "There seems to have been considerable laxity in storing petrol in the grandstand, which at times is occupied by a large nui 'ber of people. Since the matter has been brought under the notice of the Corporation by the police it is not likely that there will be a recurrence, and any further storage of petrol will no doubt be carried out in the proper manner. It is somewhat strange, however." the Coroner added, "that the governing authority should have been so careless and that no one seemed to be exactly responsible."