GAS EXPLOSION

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 21 December 1928, Page 5

GAS EXPLOSION

EXTRAORDINARY ACCIDENT. PEOPLE HURLED OUT OF BED NO FATALITIES REPORTED.

(Australian Press Association —United Service.) Received 11.15 a.m. to-day. (LONDON, Dee. 20.

There was an extraordinary gas explosion at High Holborn at eight o ’clock this morning, when business men and a mile of the roadway was torn up. women were corning into the city. Half Kerbstones were lifted like feathers, and pedestrians flung into the air. A horse was killed and a taxicab was overturned. A number of manholes exploded with a noise resembling exploding bombs. Sever il Post Office worlcI men wore seen lying in the ruins of a i manhole which was ablaze when the explosion ended. The fire brigade and ambulances were quickly on the spot and the men were removed to hospital. It was astonishing that the loss of life was not serious. People were blown out of their beds iu the neighbourhood. There were no fatalities, though many had miraculous escapes. Gas covered a wide area which the police cleared. Several people on the outskirts who were overcome by the fumes were taken to hospital. The underground railway was not affected. The police had difficulty in clearing the streets of people, who believed that the underground railway had been blown up. The accident apparently originated through workmen who were using blowing machines when laying cables. FORCE OF THE EXPLOSION. HUGE CRATERS BROWN IN ROADWAY. LINESMAN’S NARROW ESCAPE. Received 11.30 a.m. to-day. LONDON, Dec. 20. Deep fissures ran the whole way along the line. Huge craters were blown in the roadway, ton blocks of solid concrete were hurled aside, shops were damaged, parts of the roadway dropped several feet, and at one point gas is still afire. A watermain hurst, flooding many basements. It appears’ that the linesman descended a. manhole to connect a blower with a. switch. A few minutes later a. .sheet of flame rushed up. The man managed to scramble out with his trousers afire, but he was terribly burnt.