DEATH BLAST

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21085, 11 July 1938, Page 5

DEATH BLAST

WELDER KILLED TERRIFIC EXPLOSION . MELBOURNE. June 17. A note of warning left by thieves who had unsuccessfully attempted to blow a safe, failed to save the life of a man sent to open the door. He was Vincent Harvey, an oxywelder, who was called to the Polar Ice Works at Geelong to cut out the lock, which had been tampered with. Thieves placed a note on the top of the safe, stating that a live charge was in the keyhole. But before the oxy-welder was set to work, the charge had apparently slipped from the keyhole to a cavity behind the bolts, where its presence could not be detected.

Soon after Harvey -applied his flame there was a terrific explosion. The door, measuring six feet by three feet, was split in halves and hurled across the office. A steel fragment peirced Harvey’s brain, killing him instantly. William Hope, of the Victoria Safe Company, suffered a bruised forearm and shock. He had been summoned to supervise Harvey’s work. A thin partition protected tw r other men in an adjoining office. Pieces of the lock and bolts were hurled through the open doorway. Herbert Hoyle, secretary of the company, was about to enter the noorway but changed his direction whet, he saw the hoses leading from the acetylene cylinder. As he opened another door the gelignite exploded, and tore the door he was entering from its hinges.