LIGHTER BLOWS UP

Grey River Argus, 1 February 1946, Page 4

LIGHTER BLOWS UP

THREE SERIOUSLY INJURED SENSATION IN NORTH SYDNEY. (Rec. 9.01 SYDNEY, Jan. 31. North Shore homes were shaken this morning when 1 a fifty-foot lighter, moored alongside the Royal Navy escort carrier Perseus, blew up with a terrific report. People on Kirribilli Point, off which the carrier lies, saw a sheet of flame through which pieces of decking and the body of a man rose to a height of over fifteen feet. Within- a few minutes of the explosion hoses from the carrier were playing on the wreckage. Three naval ratings were seriously injured and are now in the sickbay of the carrier. One of these, who was in the cabin of the lighter, was the man seen blown into the air. He was pulled from the water by members of the carrier’s crew, having been knocked unconscious by the shock. Two other ratings were also blown into the water, but hung on to wreckage until they were picked up. A fourth man, working a pump along the lighter, was knocked out by flying wreckage, but was quickly revived. The explosion occurred as the engine of the lighter was being started.