TRAPPED IN BOILER-TUBES

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 October 1934, Page 7

TRAPPED IN BOILER-TUBES

AUCKLAND YOUTH’S DEATH RESCUE EFFORTS FAIL [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, October 11. Trapped among the tubes and stays of a marine boiler, a young apprentice was burnt to death, when his clothing caught fire this afternoon. Stuart Simpson, aged 17, was working in a boiler which stands in the yard of his employers, Mason Bros., Engineering Co., Ltd., Freeman’s Bay. A brave attempt at rescue by G. H. Mason was unsuccessful. Mason suffered burns on both arms, and he managed to escape from the boiler when almost overcome by fumes and

heat. Simpson lived at Herne Bay. The boiler was used in the motor vessel Pukeho when she was a steamer, but for some time past it has stood in the yard as a storage tank for oxygen. The biennial examination of the boiler by the Government Inspector was due to take place to-day. The oxygen was, therefore, drained out on Wednesday. The man-hole in the top of the boiler was opened to-day, and one of the engineers, George Franklin, and Simpson entered to lay sacks inside to facilitate the inspection. The apprentice went in first, and he climbed down the tubes and stays until he was near the bottom of the boiler. He was followed by Frank'lin. They had no light with them, and ’t is presumed that Simpson struck a match to see where to place the sacks. Without any warning there was a burst of fire from where the appren-

tice was standing, and the flames reached up to Franklin near the top of the boiler. He immediately climbed out of the top, and went down the ladder in search of a bucket of water, and he called for help. One of the proprietors, Mr. G. Mason, hastened up the ladder, and looked through the man-hole from where he could see the youth held upright by the tubes with his clothes ablaze, and Mason called out to the staff below to hand him a sack. Then he wriggled through the man-hole in an effort to save the apprentice. “I extinguished a piece og rope that was blazing just inside the manhole, and then I slipped down beside Simpson,” Mason said. “There was so little room inside, however, that I could not wrap the sack round him, as I had intended. The boy was a mass of flames, and as soon as I reached, him, my own clothes caught fire. I had to climb out hurriedly.” By the time Mason had climbed to safety, other members of the staff were on top of the boiler with buckets of water, which were poured down the man-hole, and the flames were quickly extinguished. An effort was made to recover the body. Owing to the fumes inside the boiler, however, it was impossible for anyone to enter, and another man-hole, near the bottom, secured with heavy logs, was opened, and compressed air was circulated for

some time. Finally, one of the staff climbed down from the top, and tied a rope about the body, which was drawn up and through the man-hole. It was lowered to the ground and a formal examination showed that the youth was dead. , x . . Mason said later that, although oxygen itself was not inflammable, anything set alight in a container in which traces of oxygen still remained would burn much more fiercely than m an ordinary atmosphere. There was little doubt that the youth was dead almost as soon as his clothing caught fire . THROWN FROM HORSE.

CHRISTCHURCH, October 12. C Rossiter, of East Oxford, a farmer died in the Christchurch Hospital, this morning, as the result of spinal injuries, received on Wednesday, when he was thrown from a horse. RESCUED GIRL. GISBORNE, October 12. Relief workers to-day rescued from the water at Score Point a girl, fully dressed, but wearing bedroom slippers, and insensible from immersion. Apparently, the girl entered the water higher up the river, and floated down on the tide, becoming stranded on a clay bank at a sharp bend. The girl was sent to hospital. SHUNTER INJURED. HASTINGS, October 11. A crushed chest and ribs were sustained by a railway porter, Richard Steele, at Takapou, this afternoon, during shunting. The buffers of two waggons overlapped and Steele stepped in to remedy the defect, he being squeezed between the two waggons. He is progressing satisfactorily in hospital at Waipukurau.