BOMBAY DISASTER

Grey River Argus, 13 September 1944, Page 4

BOMBAY DISASTER

7311 KILLED 2476 Injured INQUIRY INTO SHIP FIRE AND EXPLOSIONS. (Rec. 12.10 a.m.) , n NEW DELHI, Sept. 12. A Commission has concluded the inquiry in to the Bombay explosions on April 14. It gives five causes. It describes fourteen points on which action before and during the disaster was defective. T'wo explosions .occurred aboard the steamer Fortstikine carrying 1,395 tons of explosives,, ammunition and also cotton. Two hundred and thirty one were killed, and four hundred and seventy-six injured from the various services, the Fire Brigade, and the dock employees. At least five hundred civilians were killed. Nearly two thousand were injured. The damage amounted to several million pounds. Th e Commission found: (1) The existance of the state of war resulted in the bringing into the docks of ships laden with explosives and ammunition. (2) There had been stowing of cotton aboard the Fortsfikine above and below explosives. (3) There was accidental ignition of the cotton. (4) There was failure at the outset of the fire by those present, in authority, to appreciate the gravity of the situation, and a failure during the fire to take energetic steps to extinguish the fire, or to take alternative action to avert the disaster. (5) There was an absence at the fire of centralised executive control to issue paramount orders and co-ordin-ate the various authorities of the services concerned. The Commission rules out the possibility of deliberate’ sabotage. It considers the probable cause of the cotton igniting was a careless discarding of a cigarette or a match by some one smoking in the hold. The F'ortstikine, ’ when entering port, failed to hoist the red flag indicating dangerous cargo. No explosives were unloaded for more than twentyfour hours after berthing. When the fire was discovered, no one thought of using steam injectors, which would have checked the fire. The fire brigade was not informed for forty minutes after the fire was discovered that the ship' was carrying explosives. There was a failure from the outset to get at the heart of the fire. A second and mor e devastating explosion occurred twenty-seven minutes after the first. • The dock police impeded persons from getting away after the fire began by checking their passes right up to the moment of he first explosion.