CHLORINE GAS ESCAPES

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 February 1941, Page 2

CHLORINE GAS ESCAPES

INCIDENT AT AUCKLAND. [PER press association.] AUCKLAND, February 18. The occupants of Chancery Chambers, in O’Connel Street, City, were startled from their work at 10.30 o’clock this morning by the cry, “Get out of the building! Gas!” As they wonderingly obeyed, the unmistakable odour of chlorine gas assailed their nostrils. What had happened was that the tap of a cylinder of chlorine gas, stored in a laboratory, was open. The assistants, surrounded by clouds of highly-poisonous gas., had been unable to close it. Taking the only safe course, they warned all the tenants of the building to get outside, until the gas had blown away. Two men inhaled a sufficient quantity of the gas to necessitate their removal to hospital by ambulance, while a number of other persons in the building received enough to make them cough and splutter. Those taken to hospital were John Hayes, 24, employee of Candy Filters, Limited, in whose laboratory the cylinder was stored, and J. Bunby. It was stated at noon that neither man was in a serious condition.

The tap of the cylinder was eventually turned off by a man wearing a gas mask, and at 11.30 a.m., after a fireman had pronounced it safe to enter the building, all the tenants returned to their offices.