PETROL EXPLODES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 7 April 1934, Page 11

PETROL EXPLODES

MAN’S DEATH FOLLOWS CORONER’S FINDING A finding that Robert Adams died in hospital on 31st March from shock and burns received in an explosion of petrol which he was using in proximity to a fire was returned by the Coroner (Mr E. Gilbertson, J.P.) at the inquest at Wellington yesterday reports “The Post”. Mr Adams, who was a partner in the firm of Adams and Blyth, cartage contractors, was engaged at'Ahe time of the accident in preparing a mixture of paraffin wax and petrol to coat tarpaulins. The deposition of Richard Prince, a driver in the employ of Adams and Blyth, was that on Saturday,. 31st March, lie was assisting Mr Adams at his home to prepare a mixture which was to be applied to tarpaulins to make them watertight. The mixture consisted of one gallon of petrol to two blocks of paraffin wax. The wax was melted and the petrol poured into it. The petrol was in a four-gallon tin, and Mr Adams was tipping some out of the tin into a jar. No funnel was used, and while the petrol was running into the jar some of it overran the mouth and splashed on t£> Mr Adams’s

boots and trousers. The wax was on the stove inside the house. • The witness went away to get more petrol and wax, and on his return he heard of the accident. “I am at a loss to understand just how the accident happened,” he said. S ‘'Knowing that petrol had spilled on a the boots and. pants of Mr Adams, the " only conclusion I can come to is that he must have stepped close to a naked flame, the clothes igniting.” Mark Morgan Coleman, who resides ' in the house next door to Mr Adams’s in Rintoul street, said that at about lunch time on 31st March he heard a terrible, loud explosion. The house . shook, and for a time he thought that > the noise had been caused by an eartlij quake. He opened the rear door of the house and heard someone scream - from Adams’s house and saw that the ; washhouse was on fire. Mrs Adams i said that someone, whom he took to • be her husband, was in the washhouse. ! A man who was with Mrs Adams call- ' ed to him to help get the man out of the washhouse, which was then a mass 1 of flames inside. The witness saw Mr iUlams lying on the floor of the washhouse near the< door which led into the kitchen. He was alight all over. They succeeded in pulling him free of the flames, but his clothes were blazing. Tlio witness tried to subdue the flames with a wet towel, while others tried to get his clothes from him. The witness had no idea how the fire originated, and Mr Adams, though conscious, did not in witness’s hearing say how the fire started. Dr C. R. Childs, who attended Mr Adams after the accident, said that he was suffering from extensive burns on both arms, both thighs, and one leg, the chest, abdomen .and the greater part of the back. His face and neck 1 were also burned. He was very shock- 1 ed and in great pain. The doctor ad- 3 ministered morphia, and Mr Adams t was removed to hospital, but his con- t dition was hopeless and he died at •1 o’clock that afternoon. y To tlie Coroner, Dr Childs said that - Mr Adams died from shock and burns, shock being the principal cause of I death. The burns were, extensive, a | small portion below th e left knee being the only part of the body not in- * volved. lie could not understand how | the accident occurred, because he knew Mr Adartis to be a very prudent man. “Familiarity brdeds contempt,” re- i marked the Coroner.