OVERCOME BY GAS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20822, 29 June 1942, Page 2

OVERCOME BY GAS

RETIRED MAN’S FATE PQPY IN WWRpM quake-damaged pipe? (P.A.) WELLINGTON, this day. A tragedy, which was possibly caused by' Wednesday n'ighys earthquake, occurred at ’Kelfatirp oh' Thuts’day night. ThC body ’of Mr. Hedley v. Evens, a retired pharmaceutical chemist, was discovered by the police in a workroom under an elevated garage in the garden of his residence in Upland road, Kelbpfn, about niidpight on "Thursday. '‘The was full of gas. Mr. Eyens ' apparently had been' overcome when ''ascending the stairs into the rbqm."' ** ' The police had been called by nearby residents who’ had responded to cries for assistance from Mi’s. Evens whom they found at the frorit gate in a distracted state. Blood was running down the left side of her face from a wound which, it is surmised, may have been received while agitatedly searching for her husband in the dark. There was no electric light in the workroom and only candle? appear to have beep the normal method of lighting. Doctors tound thqt Mr. Evens had been dead fop sonje tinre. 'Neighbours’ stated that there had been a smell of gas all day. It has been suggested that the gas supply pipe was fractured'or strained by the earthquake and a' leak developed from which’the gas found its way* through the soil into the-workroom: 1 Mrs. Evens is suffering from ahock as the result of her' experiences and was taken to hospital