STREET EXPLOSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20402, 2 November 1929, Page 14

STREET EXPLOSION.

HAVOC IN GRAMOPHONE SHOP TRACED TO ELECTRIC CABLE. MANY INSTRUMENTS RUINED. Damage amounting to hundreds of pounds was clono to the shop and gramophono slock of Howies, Limited, Karangahapo Road, by an explosion shortly after two o'clock yesterday morning, caused by tho fusing of elcctric-powor cables in tho footpath. Although tho only evidence of fire was in tho display window, the shop throughout appeared to have been swept by a hurricane blast, which burst tho windows, tore up portion of the flocr and made partitions bulge orazily. Destructive as it was, the explosion was in point of time fortunate. Twelve hours later the crowds of r.hoppers would have been in great danger. Like tho many which havo occurred about tho city during tho last fow years, tho explosion was attributable to bitu-men-packed cable with faulty insulation. About 10 minutes before the oxplosion a constable noticed that tho footpath was heated and tho Power Boajrd was advised. Tho dotonation was heard over a largo area and tho window of the gramophone shop burst outwards, scattering glass far into Karangahape Road. Two small upstairs windows across the street were shattered and the blaze from the pavement ignited the front of the shop, The City Firo Brigade prevented tho outbreak from obtaining a hold. Scene of Chaos in Shop.

Tho explosion broke tlie plate-glass window of one of tho adjoining shops, tho Economic Cash Stores, and on the Other side in tho premises of the Bristol Piano. Company, high up near the window, a littlo flicker of flame was noticed. A fireman. broke a small pane of glass above the display window and smothered the flame. A stairway between the Bristol Piano Company and Howies' was buckled upwards. The gramophone shop was in chaos from its slightly charred frontage to tho broken windows at the back of the premises, a distance of 80ft. from tho footpath. The basement was in disorder, and it appeared that the explosion must have expended some of its force below the streetlevel. Cabinet gramophones lay about with their legs torn off and broken records were heaped on the floor. Only tho instruments in the window were touched by fire, and these were about eight in number. The fireproof wall-boarding used for several cubicles in tho shop gaped in places. Hero and there small patches of plaster were missing from tho walls. Pungent Smell Noticed.

On tho previous evening three,members of the staff had been engaged in stocktaking and tlio premises wero locked up shortly after 10.30. One of tho employees remarked yesterday that she had noticed a pungent smell as she was leaving, but did not think seriously of it, as gas had not been used in the shop for some time and there was no reason to suspect its presence. .

An examination of the electric cable yesterday, permitted a fairly accurate diagnosis of the trouble. • A fused end was found in. tho. bitumen boxing, where a copper stranded conductor about as thick as the little finger had burned through. Tho cable in this section of the street has probably beeii down 15 years, and it is laid in bitumen in a wooden casing. Tho bitumen used when this work was done was very brittle and it is believed that much oi' the trouble is due to subsidences in the earth, which result in the cracking of the bitumen and water seepage through the seams until insulation breaks down and short circuiting occurs. Tho heat ponerated by the fusing cable causes the surrounding bitumen to melt, and tho resultant gas finds it way through the earth crevices until it builds up in some volumo and explodes. " T hope that the Power Board is going to do something about this," said Mr. S, H. Howie yesterday, 110 remarked that insurance companies made provision in ordinary policies only for explosions of coal gas. He believed that the gramophones in the window which had been damaged by fire would be admitted. Anxiety of Shopkeepers.

The shop was carrying about £2500 ■ worth of stock and. a policy in respect to this and the' fittings amounting to £1450 was held in tho General Assurance Corporation. The byilding, which included tho shop, was insured in the New Zealand Office. There wero about 50 gramophones on the premises and there is hardly one which is pot marked to some extent. , .

Several Karangahape Road shopkeepers expressed concern at the defective cable hazard, and quite a number of poople who have witnessed the losses of neighbours are anxiously inquiring about the proximity of cables. Last year there were 39 cable fires in Auckland. The many instances this year include at least two cases of injury, ono ,a case of- burns, the other being due to flying glass. A member of the Power Board stated yesterday that most of the trouble was occurring in mains of from 12 years to 17 years old laid by the city electricity department. The board's experts had some knowledge of the order of urgency in which replacements should be made, and relaying was proceeding. The renewal was being effected with armoured cubic, which wag laid with a protecting concrete slab without utilising bitumen. The board was endeavouring to carry out tho work with as littlo inconvenience to the public as possible,, and for this reason sections were being tackled whenevor opportunity offered.