YOUTH'S TRAGIC DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21037, 23 November 1931, Page 6

YOUTH'S TRAGIC DEATH

TERRIBLE EXPLOSION. ♦ GUY FAWKES CELEBRATION, TWO OTHERS SERIOUSLY HURT. A tragic experience befel a party of revellers who were about to. ('elebrate Guy Fawkes night at Moorooka, Queensland,, on the evening of November 5. A box of explosives one of their number vras carrying blew up without warning, and terrible injuries were received by Sydney Kennock, a 17-year-old youth, who died later in the night. Three others were injured, two seriously. There were about 30 people in the party, which had called at the home of Edward, Richard Anderson, prior to leaving for a paddock where they intended to have their display of fireworks. Anderson was not ready to join them, and they were leaving the house when he heard a terrific explosion outside. The lights in the house fused simultaneously, and when Anderson ran outside to see what had happened, he became the witness of an agonising scene. Kennock and Harold Bryant, aged 17, who, it is believed, were carrying the boj between them, were lying ohi the ground apparently insensible, and the other members of the party had been rendered inactive by the shock of the explosion. Kennock had been pitched against the side fence of the house with such force that several palings were smashed. His body and clothes had been singed by the sparks so as to make him practically unrecognisable. The box in which the explosion occurred, contained a number of syrup and jam tins; each of which contained a quantity of explosives. It had been intended to set a grass fire going in a vacant paddock* and to obtain an effect similar to that produced by a hand grenade by throwing the tins on to the fire. When the explosion occurred inside th« box the tins went shattering through the wood, and fragments were later found embedded in the hardwood palings of the fence. Pieces were recovered also from a deep hole that was blown in the ground; As far as the police could learn, no one was able to say how the explosion had occurred. A spark from a cracker or a cigarette might have been responsibly but the four injured, who were nearest the box, were suffering too badly from* their injuries and shock to give a clear account of the accident. It was considered remarkable that more people were not injured by the flying pieces of tin. No damage was done to Anderson's house by actual, impact, but the shock broke the glass in five French doors and knocked the electric light meter from its fittings on the wall. Ambulance bearers hurried to the scene and conveyed Kennock and Bryant to hospital. Kennock died without having regained consciousness.