FATAL GAS LEAKAGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 12 January 1926, Page 7

FATAL GAS LEAKAGE

OVERCOME BY FUMES TWO WORKMEN" KILLED A TRAGIC CASE IN GLASGOW Fourteen persons were gassed—two fatally—in the Maryhill district of Glasgow, when, in rescuing two workmen, many volunteers, including police and firemen, were overcome. Shortly after dusk a lamplighter on his rounds in Balfour Street heard cries from an entry to a tenement dwelling, and learned that an employee of the Corporation gas department had been overcome while repairing a pipe in a cellar beneath- the property. Several young men in the neighbourhood volunteered to descend the cellar, but one after another t-liey fell unconscious and had to be hauled out by ropes. Help was summoned and a constable and four detectives rushed to the scene. All five were overcome. They were followed by an ex-service man, wearing a gas mask, but he fared no better. The fire station was notified, and ultimately the officers rescued the workman, although one of the brigade members was rendered unconscious. The workman, Janies Buchanan, died on the way to the infirmary. Aleanwhile all the tenants were rushed out of their homes, and al! fires and lights were extinguished to prevent an explosion. An hour after the ambulance had left a search party discovered a second employee of the gas department lying unconscious at the extreme end of the cellar. He was promptly raised by ropes, and after the application of oxygen recovered sufficiently to be conveyed to the infirmary. Later, however, the man, whose name was James Brown, also succumbed. The affair occurred in a densely populated area, and alarm prevailed when men returning home from work found the street thronged with excited householders rushing about with their belongings.