TERRIFIC BLASTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23258, 20 July 1945, Page 5

TERRIFIC BLASTS

Fire In Armament Depot 10,000 Halifax Residents Evacuated |: Telegraph—N 3. I’icss Assn—Copyright ißoc. 11.12 p.nu HALIFAX. July 18. A scries of terrific explosions at a naval armament dvpot recked the city. I ires and blasts continued into the night. \ greal of flame appeared to < over one end of the magazine, flames shooting up ;o 150 Icti. fhe police advised residents at the northern end of Halif. x and of the suburb of Dartmouth across the harbour to leave their Intm's. because of th* danger pi mntinuiug blast',. Shortly after midnight a blast heavier than the others shook the Halifax ana. shattering col. Hess windows t broth? bout rhe city. Naval officers said that the flames were s»eadilv creeping towards the main mauaxiiK. 3 a.m two more explosions occurred. felling two men in the Canadian Pu>s Office five miles distant and waking a woman at St. John ‘New Brunswick' 125 miles d - Twelve persons were reported injured throe hours fitter lhe initial blast and it is believed that there are many more, but the Navy refused to give details of the explosion. A Navy spokesman said that reports from Halifax indicated that the fires were being brought under control and would ‘ .ot reach and explode the main magazine No large quantities of exoiosives had been stored at any one place in order to prevent a repetition of the 1927 tragedy. The Canadian Press reported that Gmail explosions sounded with the rapidity of machine-aim fire. Loud blasts reverberated even* few minut- s. The earth for miles around shuddered under the concussion. Ten thousand persons have her... evacuated from the danger area and are row staving in open fields. There was no panie.