MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3886, 4 September 1928, Page 27

MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION.

GROCERY STORE WRECKED. STRANGE HAPPENINGS. NOTICED. AUCKLAND, August 29. A terrific explosion wrecked Mr T. Carroll s grocer’s shop at the corner of Napier street and Sheridan street at 2.15 this morning, and the debris blazed fiercely until the outbreak was quelled by the city fire brigade. The detonation was heard over a wide area, and in the immediate vicinity alarmed residents rushed out into the streets. The whole thing is a mystery. A light was seen in the shop soon after midnight, and just after the explosion a motor car containing several men left the locality and made off up Hepburn street at a high rate of speed. The building, which was an old wooden single-storeyed structure of the shop and living premises combined type, is now a scene of desolation. The explosion and the fire which followed caused a sensation in Napier street and the adjoining areas, one of the most closely packed residential areas in the city, and this morning there was a crowd of spectators to view "the scene. It was evident that the seat of the explosion had been about the middle portion of the building. One side of the shop hqd been pushed bodily into the street. A shutterwhich had been on a window had been hurled across the road. The roadway was littered with broken plate glass and incidentals. such as cabbages and tins of jam, had been hurled on to the roofs of the surrounding houses. It was the explosion that rudely awakened the neighbours, and they immediately saw that the building was a mass of flames. “ I thought that it was the gasometer that had gone up,” said one of the nearby residents, who told that the explosion was followed by heavy thuds on the roof of his house. “On rushing outside I saw that Mr Carroll’s shop was blazing like a bonfire.” Not a great deal could be gleaned from the residents in the locality beyond that they were greatly startled by the explosion, which was the first thing to draw attention to the untoward happening. One lady who lives a couple of doors away said that she felt a big bump, and at first thought that her husband had fallen out of bed. “He often does that,” she said, “ but I found that he was still there and snoring, so I stirred him up and told him to go outside and have a look round.” Inquiries were being made fjiis morning in regard to the mysterious motor car containing a number of men which dashed away from the locality just after the explosion occurred. One man who was on his way home actually saw the car turn into Hepburn street, but at that moment he was racing to find an electric fire alarm. Several people who were in bed at the time heard the rapid movement of a car. . - A woman who lives immediately opposite the wrecked building told of a mysterious light in the shop soon after midnight. The shop was then well lit up, and the light was there for some time. She felt curious about it, but did not make any further inquiries. The living portion of the shop had. been tenanted by a widow and her children. They shifted out of the premises on Sunday last, and it was Mr Carroll’s intention to have shifted in to-day. He had been living in a house close by. The shop was owned by Mr .J. Irwin, and was insured for £6OO with the British. Traders’ Insurance Company. The contents were insured for a similar amount in the same office. “ I cannot say definitely what was the cause of the fire,” said Superintendent Wilson, of the city fire brigade, this morning, “but it appears to me that it was a gas explosion. There is, however, no direct evidence, and my opinion at the moment is only a theory.” Superintendent Wilson pointed to the fact that although electric light was used in the building there was a gas stove in one of the back rooms, and he had found the tap of the service pipe turned on and the gas escaping. Some fire had been in the vicinity, but when he saw the service pipe it was disconnected from the stove. “ The place was practically a total wreck,” said the superintendent. “The walls were blown out in all sorts of shapes, while the whole of the shop front was blown out and + he contents were scattered on the roadway. It was only a small store with a 25ft frontage and a depth of about 50 feet.” Asked if there was a safe in the building, the superintendent said he had noticed one, but .from what he could see it was intact. He recalled a similar explosion and fire which .happened in a small cottage ia Anril last, a small hoiise being complete!/ Jesffoyed. ' .’