EXPLOSION IN A TUNNEL

Taranaki Daily News, 19 October 1927, Page 6

EXPLOSION IN A TUNNEL

DRILL TOUCHES GELIGNITE INJURIES TO THREE MARRIED MEN. I ■ '•* " "•—* DRAINAGE WORKS UNDERTAKING. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. An explosion of gelignite in a tunnel on the Mount Albert Borough Council’s drainage works at the Morningside reserve this morning resulted : n injuries to three martied men They were: G. McMahon, Shaw Street, Edendale; A. Oxton Road, Edendale; H. Jackson, 219 Balmoral Road. McMahon and Watts were taken to the Auckland Hospital, the condition of the former being very serious.

When the accident occurred McMahon was working a popper drill on 'he face of lhe rock, about 25 feet in the tunnel, which is reached from a vertical shaft 15 feet in depth. Following the explosion rock debris was burled in every direction. Evidently McMahon got the full force of the explosion. Jackson, who was behind him, was struck on the face and in tho back, and Watts, who was the third in th. line, received injuries to both eyes. Jackson struggled along to help McMahon, while Watts groped bis way back to the shaft, climed the ladder and gave the alarm.

About 50 yards away was J. Bonnar, foreman of the drainage works, and another group of men. They immediately made their way into the tunnel and assisted Watts and McMahon, the latter being carried out. He was conscious but could not speak. The explosion is believed to have been caused by a plug of gelignite. The.,country where the drainage works are being carried out is of a rocky nature, with occasional layers of clay. It ie thought that when a hole was previously drilled a plug of gelignite had slipped down into the clay and that thia morning it was struck while a hole Was being bored from a different angle.

The confined space made lhe explosion much more severe than it would otherwise have been.