POISONED BY COAL GAS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144668, 30 April 1915, Page 3

POISONED BY COAL GAS.

CURIOUS CASES IN WELLINGTON. »mt PRESS ASSOCIATION. WELLINGTON, April 30. Two deaths occurred in Wellington last night, or early this morning, under circumstances which lead, to tUo belief that both were due to asphyxiation by gas. Walter Holmes, aged, 39, reformed to his lodgings in Mulgrave Street after working at the wharf and was found at 7.30 dead in bed. There was no gas jet in the room, which was on the lirst floor, but the landlady, on going to the room, to call Holmes, notared a. strong smell of gas. '' Another dfidger complained of feeling very 'sjrlL i A second dpath occurred, in a house on tile opposite side of flie street fitpm that in which Holmes died. In tljis case deceased was James Robert Smith, aged 19. employed as’am engine-cleaner at Thorndon Railway Station, He’v/ent to bed at ten o’clock last night, and the landlady found him at 7.30 quite dead. Ho had been frothing at the mputh. There is a gas metef in the bedroom, but no jet. Smith came from Gisborne, and his parents live’ at Westport.', The window of his room was partly open, Householders in various, parts'of the city report a strong ’ escape, of gas, in their houses during the night.