REMARKABLE ESCAPE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 270, 15 November 1932, Page 8

REMARKABLE ESCAPE

POWER STATION ACCIDENT I OPERATOR S SERIOUS INJURIES ■ Ter Press Association.] AL'CKLAN'D, Nov. 14. i Au amazing escape from instantauej ous death wa» experienced this morn : iug by Leslie Graham Fyfe, aged 29. single, when he came in contact with a conductor carrying 50,000 volts at the Government electric power sub station at Penrose, and fell about 20 feet to the ground. Fyfe, who resides at Penrose, received burns io practically every part of his body and his head was severely injured as a result of the fall. He is also suffering from shock. He did not lose consciousness and after receiving medical attention he was taken to the hospital in a serious condition. Immediately prior to the accident Fyfe had been removing birds’ nests from the high-tension structure in the station yard. As there were no witnesses to the actual occurrence, it Is not known exactly how the injured man came to touch the conductor, i which is high above the high-tension I structure and barely wit hin reach of a man standing on the topmost girder. Members of the station staff in the vicinity heard a loud report and saw a bright flash. They then found Fyfe lying bi iow the structure on one of the switches. “It is phenomenal that he is still alive alter taking 30,000 volts through his body, but the shock of striking his head on the switch below may have helped to bring him round.” said Mr. O. Chamberlain, superintendent at the ■ station. He had known other cases ‘ where people had survived after such extremely severe shocks, but as a rule they weie killed instantly. It was impossible to say how Fyfe had touched the conductor.

Fyfe, who recently graduated as & Bachelor of Engineering at Canterbury College, has been employed as an operator at Penrose for the past two months.