NEARLY ASPHYXIATED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20480, 4 February 1930, Page 10

NEARLY ASPHYXIATED.

MAN FOUND UNCONSCIOUS.

ENTERED BOWSER TANK.

WIFE'S FORTUNATE DISCOVERY.

[by telegraph.—own correspondent.] WELLINGTON, Monday.

A County Council foreman in a Wairarapa township has every reason to thank Providence that he is alive to-day. He had pumped out a bowser tank as far as possible and then descended into the tank to clear out the remainder of the petrol and some water which had found its way in. Ho was immediately overcome by the fumes and lay there unconscious for nearly two hours, being found by his wife, who went to call him to dinner Ho is now recovering after being resuscitated with the greatest difficulty. In this particular township the local authority has a depot in which there is a bowser to supply benzino for its lorries and other motor vehicles. During the heavy weather a week or two ago a little water, somehow or other permeated through the connections. Trouble was experienced with two lorries, so the man in charge decided to pump the remaining benzine out of the tank and get rid of the water. Ho pumped out all that the suction would reach, and then went into the tank, evidently to wipe out the water. That was the last he remembered, for apparently the fumes overcame him instantly and he collapsed into the bottom of the tank, lying in what remained of the benzine and water.

Just before mid-day his wife called him for dinner, and getting no answer went up to the tank, where, to her horror, she saw him stretched apparently lifeless on the bottom. There was no sign of jjreathing. She called for some men, who promptly got her husband out, the air in the tank having by this time cleared fairly welL He appeared to be- dead, ■ but after a considerable time he revived.

Had his wife been a few minutes later, said the doctor who attended him, the man would have been beyond recovery. Mr. Girling Butcher, deputy-chief inspector of explosives, when his attention was drawn to the facts, said it was the the first case of the kind which had com* to the notice of the department. Under the regulations the man should not have opened or entered the tank until he had permission from the licensing authority, which in country districts is the explosives department and in the towns and cities the municipal authorities.