KILLED BY BOMB.

Opunake Times, 16 August 1932, Page 3

KILLED BY BOMB.

BEDROOM TRAGEDY. PUT ON FIRE TO MELT. Mrs Florence Adelaide Canning Williams, aged 55, of Parkanaur Avenue, Tfforpe Bay, died in Southend Hospital from injuries received when a Mills’ bomb exploded in her drawing room. The bomb was thought to be harmless. It is stated that it had been put on the tire to be melted down to make a weight for a fishing line, when it exploded. Mr Wallace Canning Williams, a son, said: “My father and 1 had been on Southend pier in the afternoon and we found we had not enough lead weights. When we came home, father looked round to find something to melt down to make into a weigfit. He thought of the bomb, a war relic brought home by my brother, which we thought had been emptied. Father took out the pin in the garden in the afternoon. It sprang away and we could not find it. It was a wonder the bomb did not explode then. The bomb was put on the fire and the coals were heaped round it. My father suddenly heard a terrific explosion and rushed in to find the room full of smoke and dust.”

Mrs Williams was lying unconscious before the fire and Doris Stephens, aged 16, the -maid, had collapsed with a cut in the forehead. The mantelpiece, fireplace and ceiling were shattered, and many bricks in the wail were loosened.

Both Mrs Williams and the maid were taken to hospital, but after treatment the girl was allowed to go home.