WINDOWS SHATTERED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 336, 23 April 1928, Page 1

WINDOWS SHATTERED

FUSING CABLES CAUSE EXPLOSIONS MISHAPS IN CITY Four plate-glass windows were shattered and other damage done to two shops at the corner of Quay and Queen Streets yesterday morning by an explosion caused by the fusing of an underground cable. Keans, Ltd., mercers and men’s outfitters, suffered most damage. The adjoining shop, occupied by Mr. B. R. Arnott, tobacconist, showed evidence of the force of the explosion. Although Mr. Arnott’s window was not broken, all the stock was shaken from the shelves to the f. % >r, a heavy safe was moved 10 feet, and the floor was buckled and forced upward. An alarm was sounded and the City Fire Brigade quickly extinguished the flames burning above the gaping hole in the pavement where the explosion had occurred. One of the mains laid about 16 years ago was responsible for the fault, which occurred within three feet of the shop frontages. The system at present beiug installed will do much to avoid the possibility of such explosions, and the mains are laid as far kom buildings as is practicable. Another explosion, due to the fusing a cable at the corner of Symonds street and Wellesley Street East Paused the City BrigacV to turn out at l.io p.m. yesterday. Little damage was done and the "ames were easily put out.