COURT ROOM WRECKED

Evening Star, Issue 19326, 12 August 1926, Page 3

COURT ROOM WRECKED

A TERRIFIC EXPLOSION BURST STOVE OR GELIGHITE ROOM FORTUNATELY EMPTY. . [Pes UxiiEn Press Association.] INVERCARGILL, August 11. Chance prevented a tragedy at the Invercargill Court-house 1 this morning. About ten minutes past 9 the stall in j tho court office was startled by a tre-1 meudous explosion in tho Magistrate’s Courtroom. Going across to investigate, they found the room in a state of chaos. Apparently the steam stove which heats tho room had burst and water was lying on tho floor in large pools, while several sections of tho heavy pipe which carries the steam to various parts of the building were lying in different parts of the room. The four largo windows which lace | tho police station yard and take up practically tho whole of one side of the room were shattered. Even tho upright sections of wood which hold the glass in place wore twisted and bent." The long table, at which the solicitors sit, was badly knocked about, and thorn were marks on tho ceiling and the walls in all parts of the room, showing where the pieces of flying metal had struck, The Prons table, which stands next to tho stove, was also damaged, and there wore several marks on tho wall behind it, which showed that anyone sitting there would have boon instantly killed. There wore large marks above the door leading to the _ room, and in the room itself, which is separated from tho court room by a fairly thick wall, plaster had been knocked down from tho corner of the coiling. Tho marks on tho walls and coiling oxlendcd_ right round tho court room'some considerable distance away from the stove. Ono of tho doors leading to the'room was also damaged, A very largo number of cases was set down for hearing at tho court to-day, and a special meeting of tho solicitors of the town had been called to congratulate Mr Cruickshank on completing his twenty-fifth year on tho bench” so that, had tho explosion occurred only three-quarters of an hour later, the court room would have been crowded, and many lives must have been lost. . it is not known bow the explosion occurred, but two possible solutions are that there was gelignite in the coal, or ‘that tho steam in tho pipes expanded and burst the stove. 'Jho stove was burning at the time the explosion ocurrcd, the charwoman having lighted it in the morning. Ihe lhcory°that the steam caused tho damage is almost upset by tho fact that .there was no steam in tbo room when tbo clerks entered; but, on _the_ other hand, bad there been gelignite in tbo coal it might havo exploded sooner.