EXPLOSION OF GAS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 751, 26 August 1929, Page 1

EXPLOSION OF GAS

COTTAGE DOOR BLOWN OUT OLD MAN’S EXPERIENCE As Joseph E. Farnell, of 22 Spring Street, Onehunga, was attempting to light a gas jet in his cottage at 7.30 last evening he was thrown to the

floor by a violent explosion. It blew out the panels of the hack door and set the room on fire.

“I was standing on a chair at the time, trying to light the burner,” he stated, “and wondered when I pulled the chain attached to the lever why I got no light. Suddenly I was thrown off the chair and felt as though I was being shot out of a gun. When I came to my senses I was lying on the floor against the front wall, the place was on fire, and the back door blown clean out into the yard.” Mr. Farnell is a carpenter, aged 70, and lives by himself in a cottage of three rooms which he built himself. He bad been to a neighbour’s for tea, and th,e gas had not been lit since Saturday night. He entered by the back door but failed to detect any smell of escaping gas. The match was alight for some seconds before the explosion occurred. The down-pipe from the ceiling was cleaned out a few weeks ago, and an examination made about 10 o’clock last evening disclosed a crack in the pipe six inches long, about a foot below the ceiling, which would account for the leakage. The frame of the back door is all that is left of it. The panels were forced outward, and were lying in the yard six or eight feet from the house. “I had to work hard for a few minutes before I managed to extinguish the fire,” said Mr. Farnell. The explosion was heard some distance away, and attracted the notice of Mr. J. C. Herkt, of Church Street, who immediately ran to Mr. Farnell’s assistance.

The premises are insured for £4OO, but the damage does not exceed more than a few pounds, and Mr. Farnell seems none the worse for his experience.