OVERCOME BY GAS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21793, 7 May 1934, Page 8

OVERCOME BY GAS

TWO MEN AFFECTED ONE DEAD WHEN FOUND [bv TELEGRAPH OWN* correspondent] FEILDING, Sunday As the result of an escape of gas through a valve which they were repairing at the Feilding gasworks yesterday, Mr. Cyril Bray, aged about 40, who resided in Wellington, was fatally gassed, and Mr. James Lever, of Wellington, was admitted ,to the Palmerston North Hospital in a fairly serious state.

Both men were employees of a gas engineering firm, E. R. Babbidge and Company, of Wellington. They were working in a small shed in which the valves controlling the gas from tho large gasometers are located. The valves had not been functioning satisfactorily recently and the two men had been sent to Feilding to repair them. The heads of the valves had been removed and from their positions when found apparently both men had been in the valve mechanism pit adjusting the gear. While at the valves they evidently failed to detect an escape of gas direct from the gasometers. Mr. Bray, who was working right over the top valve, evidently received a. stronger amount than Mr. Lever, who was further away. Both men were completely unconscious when found by Mr. Charles Henry Eichler, an employee of the Feilding gasworks. Medical aid was immediately summoned. Mr. Bray was found to bo beyond recovery. Resucitative measures with Mr. Lever proved successful and he was then despatched to the Palmerston North Hospital in the hospital ambulance. Later he recovered sufficiently, to be able to leave the institution. Mr. Bray was not married.