FIVE MEN ENTOMBED

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 3 October 1925, Page 5

FIVE MEN ENTOMBED

BY FALL OF EARTH. ACCIDENT AT COLERIDGE.. WORKERS TRAPPED IN TUNNEL. (BY TELEGRAPH PBESS ASSOCIATION.) CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. 2. Five men were entombed by a fall of earth at the outlet end of the tunnel in the course of excavation at Lake Coleridge at 6.45 a.m. to-day. Archie MacDonald, a single man. Archie MacFarlane, a married man with two children. Richard Green, a married man with seven children. Hugh Daly, a married man. Gordon Archer, unknown. Archer and Daly are known to be alive, and the Public Works engineer has every reason to be hopeful of the safety of the other three. The men are trapped about 30 feet in from the surge chamber. Communication has been established by a pipe driven through the fall. A gang is now engaged putting through a small drive to release the men, whom they hope to recover to-morrow. J. Shaw and J. Maher, two other men on the shift, were out of the danger zone when the timbering gave way, anil tons of earth fell from the roof. At 4.30 p.m. conversation took place with Daly and Archer, and they were supplied with provisions. There is no sign of the other three men. NO WARNING GIVENTHREE MEN BURIED. FEVERISH RESCUE WORK. CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. 3. Early this morning a correspondent at Lake Coleridge telephoned that there was no warning of the fall. A sudden crack and a rending of timber was heard, followed by the rumble of falling shingle. The tall consisted of two lengths of material, each of 16ft. 6 inches, and the bodies of three men, Green McDnoald and MeFarlane, are buried under a mass of fallen soil. The two other men, Daly and Archer, were about 40 feet away when the fall happened. The accident was caused by water percolating through the loose shingle and weakening the timbering until it- could not support the. weight. The highest part of the hill was above where the fall occurred. 'Hie hill, at that point, rises 300 feet. _ A ' by-pass tunnel is being driven round a very sharp curve to reach the entombed men. Strenuous efforts are being concentrated on this work, all other tunnelling at the end where the accident occurred being suspended in the meantime.

Seventy-four feet of by-pass tunnel has to be cut through to get the men out and 30 feet of this was completed by midnight. The by-pass was started fairly wide, but rock was encountered and it had to be narrowed down until it was just large enough to crawl into. The rescue tunnel is not being timbered. The work of driving through a large pipe was still in progress at midnight. Supplies of fruit and* food will be drawn tlirough the pipe by means of a line. The piercing end of the pipe is fitted with a pointed plug, and the plug will be forced out by' a smaller rod when the larger pipe is driven through to where the men are imprisoned.