CLOTHES BURNED OFF

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21821, 26 November 1940, Page 4

CLOTHES BURNED OFF

BUSH WORKER’S DEATH Severe burns from which he later died were suffered by Thomas Francis Lewis, a married man with two children, employed as a lorry and hauler driver by the Waltane Sawmilling Afforestation Company, Ltd., near Mataura, when he was operating a hauler on Thursday afternoon about four miles in the bush from the company’s mill. The hauler was attached to trees with steel guy ropes, and it is understood that while Lewis was operating it a tree was pulled out by the roots and the hauler “bucked." Lewis was soaked with petrol from the tank of the hauler, and when the petrol came in contact with the hot exhaust the hauler burst into flames. Lewis’s clothes caught alight, and he was severely burned. His cries were heard by another employee, who was working about eight chains away, and when he arrived at the scene he found that Lewis’s clothes had been burned off him. Lewis was taken out of the bush on a stretcher, and the Invercargill ambulance was called. He was brought to the Dee Street Hospital, but died before the ambulance reached it. It is thought that the recent heavy rain must have loosened the roots of the tree and caused it to pull out when the hauler was working. Lewis had been in the employ of the company for eight years, and he lived at Waitane with his wife and children.