Explosion on Pie Cart

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6836, 18 April 1932, Page 6

Explosion on Pie Cart

YOUNG MAN’S NARROW ESCAPE. With a crash that startled residents within a raduis of several hundred yards, a gas stove in premises in Princess street exploded yesterday afternoon, while a young man in the vicinity had a narrow escape from serious injury. The stove was part of the equipment of a coffee stall owned by Mr. A. Mathias, which was parked in an alleyway in Princess street, near the intersection of Broadway avenue. Mr. T. Nolfec was working in the stall, and several huge pots of vegetables were boiling on tho top jets. It is presumed that he turned on the jets in the oven by accident and, unnoticed by him, the oven became tilled with gas. The naked flame on top did the rest.

Mr, Noffco had moved several yards away when the explosion occurred. The tromendous force blew tho stove to pieces and the massive door struck his leg, inflicting cuts, its flight being checked when it crashed through a kerosene tin. The heavy pots were thrown up to tho roof of the vehicle, tho contents descending in a hot hail of peas and potatoes. The whole stall shook with the force of the explosion and tho noise immediately attracted a knot of alarmed neighbour, whose apprehensions had, no doubt, been raised by recent occurrences in Auckland.