MINIATURE INFERNO

Evening Star, Issue 20056, 22 December 1928, Page 10

MINIATURE INFERNO

HIGH HOLBORN DESOLATED FIRES NOT YET OUT Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. London, December 21. (■Received December 22, at II a.m.) High Holborn shopkeepers in tho dangey area had a heart-breaking experience. A butcher with £IOO worth of Christmas turkeys remained open, bub no customers came, because tlio shop overlooks a lingo cavern. The patients at the Royal Westminster Hospital arc being fed on cold and tinned foods, as (ires are not permitted. Operations cannot bo undertaken, as the water is cut off. An urgent operation which was necessary to prevent a patient losing his sight was carried out with the aid of an electric steriliser.

A big section of High Holborn continues desolate. Eivo hundred police and many (iremen were on duty nil night. Many houses were compulsorily evacuated.

Elaines continue to issue through tlio ever-widening fissures in the streets, making the region a miniature inferno. The fires in some places are threatening the foundations of the high buildings. Water is being pumped iu to combat the peril.—Australian Press Association.

THE WORST OVER

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.

LONDON, December 21. (Received December 2i, at 12.JU p.m.) Workmen this altenioon succeeded in scaling up the great gas main beneath the road in High street, Holborn, from which gas had been pouring since the explosion that did so much damage yesterday. After the main had been sealed the llamcs, which had been spouting up in the ’centre ot the road lor thirty hours, wero put out. The authorities dared nut extinguish them before, as tho flames acted as a safety valve by consuming the escaping gas. Experts and ollieials arc ol opinion that, although some risk ol further explosion still exists, (he greater danger has now passed. Policemen, firemen, and ambulance and gas officials aro still on guard lest further explosions should occur.

One great point which has yet to bo settled about tho explosion is tlio primarv cause. The Gas Company emphatically repudiates responsibility. Its ollicials slate that the trouble began in tlio duct conveying telegraph cables to the post office, whore electrical work was iu progress, and express flic opinion that tho first explosion was due to bitumen gas generated by the insulation on electric cables, and that this explosion damaged tho gas mains and caused further trouble. lb is understood that a Government inquiry wifi bo held to establish the responsibility.—Australian Press Association.