GAS TRAGEDY.

Otaki Mail, 18 September 1931, Page 4

GAS TRAGEDY.

'■ ■» I WORKMEN OVERCOME. , Detecting the presence of a noxious -as ill a caisson on tho bed of tin: Thames in which four of his men were working, the foreman, William U'Bunnell, aged 20, shouted a warning to those above and went down to save his mates. His body was found 40ft. below the surface. lie was still grasping the ladder when he was overcome by the lias and .lied. The men he had tried to save were dead and-were brought out by liremen wearing gas-masks. Two of the victims were brothers. The tragedy occurred near the end ofl ■i ni"ht-shiit during work for the eon- , struct ion of an under-watcr tunnel ul • a new motor works at Dngenliuni. on ' the lower reaches of. the Thames, the cais«on had been sunk in mud and ooze 50 var.ls from the bank of the river. Apparently the workmen disturbed un old refuse heap and liberated carbon dioxide gas Several other shafts had been sunk safely. K.scuers, who heard O'Uonnel s cry, rushed to the caisson and saw the men huddled in a heap in two feet of mud ut the bottom ot the caisson. Diver Scummed, hero of the rescue of another diver. Milton, trapped umi. ■ a caisson at Dagonham, on .Line lb. went down lirst, and guided Hie rescue ptuty. ; J liver Milton, when a caisson stuck, i went down to ascertain the cause. 11 j suddenly dropped and imprisoned Inn. I in several feet of mud. other divers 1 were rushed to the spot. Scanlmell went into the mud and passed a line around him while the others freed ins life-line and air-pipe. Milton was hauled to the surface after being m the nn«\ for seven hours. "Give me a beer:" was all he said when asked how he felt. Cuisson is an engineering term, ana is applied in this ease to a tug steel cage used as a sort of "floating dock." The caisson, or cage, is divided into compartments, and sunk into the ground. Men at Us base dig the earth or mud. and the cage gradually sink:, to its full depth. Then, for tunnelling . purposes it is pushed ahead, and, when ■ the job is complete.!,' Idled with con- ' crete. The carbon dioxide would be released from the old refuse, .and would I overcome tho workers.