DEADLY WELL OF GAS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21473, 22 April 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

DEADLY WELL OF GAS

LOSS OF THREE LIVES SURVIVOR'S CLOSE CALL % heroic rescue' work Self-sacrifice as fino as any seen in tha war was displayed within a few miles of the Essex village of Cranham on March 13, when two heroes went to their death or were overcome in tho attempted rescue of comrades who had been gassed underground. The dead, all married men.; were .William Nightingale, aged about 45, William Huckle, and Douglas Ruffelh Another man, A. W. Leggatt, was injured. Tho first intimation of what had happened was. dramatic enough. The four men were employed at the sewage outfall works, where a filter bed deals with the Upminster drainage. The works are situated in the country, far removed from ordinary traffic, and it was Mr. Leggatt who, after an almost superhuman effort* brought the. news beforo collapsing in his wife's arms. Messrs. Nightingale, Huckle and Ruffell had started in the morning on their ordinary duty, which wjis to clear a sump that lies at the bottom of an 18ft. well. Nightingale went to tho bottom of the narrow shaft, and, suddenly overcome by gas, fell into more than 2ft. of mud and water. Mr. Ruffe!) at the time was on a ledge half-waj down the well, and he appears to have gone at once to his fellow workman's assistance. But he, too, was overcome, whereupon Mr. Huckle, who was at the top, also descended. All three men were overcome completely by the gas at the bottom of the well, when Mr. Leggatt came along. He was alarmed by the sudden silenco and the stoppage of work, and a glance was enough to show him what had happened. Without a moment's hesitation he decided to go down the deadly well. He was fully aware of the great risk involved, for by now the smell of tha gas was over the whole countryside. Hall-mile Crawl for Help Leggatt must have descended somo distance when he became aware that ho could not possibly hope to be of any real help without assistance. He hail just managed to struggle back to tho top when he fell, striking his head against an iron grating. Dazed but determined, Leggatt picked himself up and set off to raise an alarm. His actions were almost mechanical, but, in spite of his weakness he struggled on, sometimes crawling, and at last, exhausted, reached his cottage half-a-mile away. There he gasped to his startled wife, " I fainted!" and fell unconscious.

A neighbour, Mr. White, ran to "the well and pluckily endeavoured to descend, but the gas drove him back. A police sergeant followed, and he, too, went down, only to be overcome. When the Upminster Fire Brigade arrived the position was serious. Tiny were not provided with gas masks, but Fireman Carter without hesitation went down the well. His plucky action made it clear that rescue work was impossible without some form of protection against the gas. Shortly afterwards the Romford fire, brigade arrived, and two of their members descended, wearing oxygen masks. They were down so long in a desperate attempt to rescue the three men that they too were overcome. Hauled up by a rope they lay stretched out unconcious for a time on the ground at the" top. Working by Lamplight There was no slackening, however, in the work of rescue, and in the meantime the TJpminster firemen hful obtained three gas-masks of the military type from a barracks in the neighbourhood. At last Mr. Nightingale was brought up dead. Mr. Huckle Was still alive when brought to the top, and artificial respiration was at once started and con-. tinued in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, but he died soon after his arrival there. All through the afternoon and evening the work of rescue went on, but it was hampered by the difficulty of pumping out water which was less than 3ft. deep. More water was added, and then the pump was brought into action, and the third body—that of Mr. Ruffell—was removed. The scene was an eerie one, as the rescuers worked in the darkness by the light of lamps. Mrs. Leggatt, wife of the man vrho had managed to save himself, was with her husband at night when, to. her additional grief, the body of her brother, one of the three victims, was recovered.