SHIP ON FIRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 April 1924, Page 2

SHIP ON FIRE

BIG CASUALTY LIST.

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Associatioi .)

ADELAIDE, April 28. The steamer City of Singapore is still burning, and is likely to do so for several days. When the explosion occurred the fireman Greenman was killed outright. The other two, Hickey and Anderson, were engulfed in wreckage. Later, the remains of one of them were found, but, as it consisted only of the skull and a few charred bones, identity was not established. The name of the other fireman who died from injuries is not so far ascertained.

The latest accounts give four killed or missing, and thirteen injured. The names of the latter are: —Charles McKay, 'John AValsh, Patrick Ryan, Martin Moore, F. Cornish, Laurence Anthony, Henry Sayers, Jack Key, William Ryan, George Stuart Easton, Mainud Dayang, Thomas Booth and William Bentwell.

The force of the explosion was shown by a piece of iron being hurled seventy yards, and a man on the opposite bank.,of the river being struck by a piece of flying steel, and slightly injured. The. disaster was one of the worst experienced on the Australian waterfront. It has paralysed the fire fighting force. The crew of the vessel comprised 17 Europeans, 13 Malays, and 37 Lascars. When the fire was discovered, the Master ordered all the native crew out, and told the Fifth Engineer to open the valves and flood the hold, and cut off all steam. The explosion, which wrecked the ship, is believed to have ..been caused by coal gas.