FATAL EXPLOSION.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16037, 30 January 1920, Page 3

FATAL EXPLOSION.

CORONER’S FINDING,

(Per United Press Association.) .. DUNEDIN, January 29. The adjourned inquest concerning the explosion which took place in the Clutha River Board’s steamer Clutha on November 11th last, when 23 of the crew were badly scalded, David Reddie (fireman) being fatally, injured, was resumed to-day before Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M. The Coroner said the proximate cause of the fatality was the bursting of the boiler through the failure of the supply of water. The fireman in charge was an experienced fireman, with lengthy service on the river boat. When it came to an explanation of how the water in the boiler failed and was reduced so low', they were met with extraordinary conflict between the evidence of the deck hands and expert opinion as to w'hat w r as possible; in fact these were not matters on which it was incumbent on him to express an opinion, and really it was not yet proper for him to give a definite finding on those issues. They were matters to which, if anything, civil liability would attach, and they were not distinctly pertinent to the coroner’s inquiries. The formal verdict was that the deceased, David Reddie, died from injuries received through the bursting of a boiler.