FATAL EXPLOSION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19366, 24 July 1925, Page 4

FATAL EXPLOSION

MAN KILLED. WARMED GELIGNITE OVER A 1 FIRE. (Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN. July 23. A distressing accident occurred nt Kaka Point, near Port Molyncaux. .it about 12.30 p.m. to day, when a man named Frederick Oliver Bates was kill ed almost instantaneously through an explosion of gelignite. He was employed as a surfaceman by the f’lutha County (’ousc.il, and was working on the road at Kaka Point. There is a small quarry nearby, and during the lunch hour while the other workmen were absent, the deceased collected a quantity of gelignite which had frozen hard through the cold weather and was warming it over a fire in the open when the explosion occurred. Ro was badly mutilated about the head and shoulders and his right hand was practically blown off. No one wit nessed the accident. His son. aged about 16. was with him previous to the adjournment for lunch, but was working further along the road when the explosion actually occurred. The unfortunate man died twenty-five minutes afterwards. Doctors Stonhouse and Radcliffe went from Balclutha immediately after the accident had been reported, but on their arrival found that Bates had expired some time previously. Deceased was 54 years of age.