EXPLOSION IN FACTORY

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 March 1929, Page 12

EXPLOSION IN FACTORY

HAZED MAN ARRESTED.

LEEDS, February 2. A serious explosion in which the fiont part of the building was blown occurrec l at the works of the U-Phone Gramophone Company at Brantley, Leeds, early to-day. It is alleged that a burglar had used some gelignite for the purpose ot opening* a safe. The explosion was heard by a police constable, who run to the scene.

The explosion occurred about six o clock, and it thoroughly alarmed the occupants of several houses in the vicinity. One man who lives about twenty yards away told me that he heard a dull thud, which, he said, “was for all the world like a big gas explosion. It nearly blew’ us out of bed.” As soon as he was dressed he went out and discovered that a huge gap had been made in the front of the building. It was five or six yards wide, and wreckage was strewn all over the place, both inside and outside the building. He saw a police constable arrive and go into the building. And a few moments later the officex - came nut again holding a man who appeared to be in a somewhat dazed condition. It is surmised that an attempt had been made to force open a safe by means of gelignite, and that the powerful explosive had been used in too large a quantity. The safe, it is stated, was twisted into all sorts of shapes by the explosion.

Later in the morning, Frederick Stirk (42), a joiner, of Sandhurst Road, Harehills, Leeds, was charged at Leeds with warehouse breaking, and with being in the possession of house-breaking implements, and with stealing a cash-box containing £45 18s 9cl. It was stated that the cash box which he was carrying when arrested had been left in the safe the previous night. It was further stated he had admitted breaking into a magazine at the Cardigan Pit, Leeds. The prisoner was remanded in custody.