POWDER EXPLOSION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17781, 17 May 1932, Page 9

POWDER EXPLOSION

SIX PERSONS INJURED UNEMPLOYED MAN’S MISFORTUNE ADELAIDE, May 7. Sir persons are in hospital suffering from severe burns and shock as the result of an explosion of gunpowder at a house in Ralffigh avenue, Flinders Park, to-day. Five of them are members of one family, and the sixth is a little girl who was visiting the house. The only member of the family who was not injured was a baby, 10 months old, whom a neighbor had taken tor a walk.

Those in hospital are:—Leslie Walter Earl, J? 5; his wife, Maude Gladys Earl, 33; Vcrco Earl, 12; Walter Earl, 10; Gloric Earl, 5; and Betty Ryan, 4. Mrs Earl’s condition is critical, and that of Vcrco artd Gloria Earl is very serious.

The two adults and four children were sitting on cushions in a small cirlo on the floor of the back verandah of the. house, opening old revolver cartridges ifi order to get tlie powder in them. About a pound of powder was in a heap on a sheet of paper iii Hie middle of the group when there was an explosion and the powder ignited. The flames ignited Mrs Earl’s clothes and that of the children.

It lias been suggested that a scratch on one of the metal cartridge cases with a,pocket knife may have caused a spark, which lit the powder, or the detonator of a cartridge may have been .exploded. Mr Earl was removing the 'buffets from the cartridges with a pair of pliers, while Mrs Earl and the elder children Were extracting the powder from them. Betty Ryan and the younger Earl children were looking on and playing with the empty shells. Mf Earl, when seen in the hospital, said that he had just stopped working, and waft going to put the powder away, when a blast of fire seemed to strike him. He added: “It was stunned ifor a moment. Then I heard the Children screaming. Their clothes jtfo're in flames, and they were rushing about in agony and fright. I tried desperately to put the flames out with my hands. That is how they got burnt, although I did not feel the •burns until help came. My wife seemed t. 6 he a mass of flames, and I tried to help her. but some of the neighbors arrived and looked after her.” Mr Earl added that he had had no permanent work for two years and had no money. They were getting ,the powder from the cartridges, which ‘a friend had given him in order to sell it.