EXPLOSION OF POWDER

Waipa Post, Volume 39, Issue 3088, 12 December 1929, Page 4

EXPLOSION OF POWDER

THREE MEN SUSTAIN BURNS COURAGEOUS ACT OF MAORI. CAMBRIDGE, Wednesday. Further details regarding the premature explosion of blasting powder at the Public Works Department camp at Karapiro yesterday show that three men narrowly escaped serious injury. In consequence of burns on his face and hands Mr John Dennis, aged 46 years, was admitted to the Waikato Hospital, another worker, Mr _W. Armstrong, aged about 55, received burns on the face and hands, and the storeman of the camp, Mr V. Dallas, who was standing near-by, was painfully burned about the face. The accident occurred when three workmen were preparing to blast some soft rock in the vicinity of a new culvert some distance from the main road work. Mr Dennis had lighted the fuse to the charge, when 151bs of blasting powder, which was on the ground near-by, became ignited. It exploded with a vivid flash of flame.

When the smoke had cleared Mr Dennis was seen to be lying _ across the lighted fuse, unable to rise. A Maori named Rewha courageously ran forward and pulled Mr Dennis clear shortly before a second explosion occurred.

The injured men were attended by Mr W. Davis, an employee of the camp, and by Dr. H. C. Tod, of Cambridge. Later Dennis was taken to the Waikato Hospital, and although verypainful, his injuries are not very serious.