LOCKED IN ICE CHAMBER

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1783, 15 July 1926, Page 6

LOCKED IN ICE CHAMBER

RESCUE BY LUCKY CHANCE,

■An agent for a 'fruit marketing firm had the terrifying experience of finding himself locked by accident in one of the cool chambers at the Imperial Cold Storage Company at Capetown in a freezing temperature, in d'arknesis, and in grave danger of a horrible death since the insulated walls and doors made it impossible for him to make his dangerous plight known. The victim of this nerve-racking experience was Mr Mathyns Louhser, manager of an agency called the Boere Mark Agentskaf. One evening he was in the cool chamber inspecting a stock of appleis which had been placed there when the lights were suddenly switched off and the door closed.

In all such stores cases of fruit are •piled high above one another, making the presence of a man quite unknown. The natives in charge of the store were not those usually on djuty, and not realising the .presence of anyone when they left, they switched off the lights and closed and locked the door. Mr Loubser hammered upon the door, hut no reply reached him from the outside. Suddenly the awful realisation came to him that he was in danger of meeting a horrible death in the darkness and alone. "The "black horror of the chamber I shall never forget,' 'he said, after his rescue, but that rescue was only made by the greatest piece of luck. Wherever he moved, Loubser felt hoar frost and tiny iciclels. He groped his way to another part of the chamber and shouted again, but with no .better luck. Gradually he weakened and fell to the floor convinced that only by a miracle could he be saved. How long he remained in this semiconscious state he does not know, but 'at length heard a sound from the floor above, and gathered all his strength for one final shout.

Then a streak of light entered the chamber, and 1 Louttser, after a while, found a man standing over him. •Mr Van Kyi, the engineer, had by great good fortune opened the store above the one in which Loubser was lying, and, hearing a strange noise he'Low, decided to investigate. To this Mr Loubsr owes his life. When he was found he could barely speak. He was for some time in the hands of'his doctor, suffering from "nerves," and has been forbidden to speak about his experience.