SHOP WRECKED

Wairarapa Daily Times, 13 May 1932, Page 5

SHOP WRECKED

BY GAS EXPLOSION. FIVE PERSONS INJURED. AUCKLAND, Thursday. With a noise like the bursting of a high explosive shell, and with almost as much subsequent damage, a gas explosion occurred in a living room behind a shop in Court’s Buildings, Queen Street, Onehunga, at about 2 o’clock this afternoon. The building, a two-storeyed structure of brick and concrete, was almost completely wrecked and five people were injured, fortunately none of them seriously. The list of injured is as follows: — Claude Harrison, aged 57, proprietor of a confectionery shop, where the explosion occurred, fractured arm and cuts on face; John iSibbin, aged 52, Gas Company employee, burns to right hand and face; Doreen Catchpole, aged 12, fra&hrred femur; Mrs Harrison, wife of BKe shopkeeper, injuries to right arm and legs; Mbs Mary Catchpole, mother of D<vj|ib Catchpole, badly sprained ankleT^ The wreckage caused by the ,r explosion made it seem almost miraculous that no one was gravely injured. Nearby shopkeepers stated that the roar of the explosion was indescribable. The entire front of Harrison’s shop was blown out. The living room, where the explosion actually occurred, was just a mass of jagged timbers. The gas stove was thrown across the kitchenette behind the living room. There were ominous bulges in the brick walls at the sides of the building, and cracks in the concrete wall at the rear. The other shop in Court’s Buildings, occupied by E. Hardgrave, hairdresser and tobacconist, had its plate glass window blown out, and in an adjoining building, a tailor’s shop occupied by I. Logins, two plate glass -windows were wrecked. So great was the force of the explosion that on the other side of the street the plate glass windows of three shops were smashed by the concussion. A touring car was parked on outside the shop. It, too, was badly damaged by the force of the explosion and by flying glass. The shopkeeper on the other side of the street said that when he heard the roar of the explosion he dashed out on to the footpath. All he could see was a dense cloud of smoke and dust. When it cleared there was a gaping shop front, wrecked almost beyond recognition. Luckily the explosion was followed only by a minor outbreak of fire, which was quickly subdued. —(P.A.)