TRAPPED BY FUMES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 224, 20 September 1940, Page 5

TRAPPED BY FUMES

RESCUE OF WORKMAN. MATE'S GALLANT ACTION. (By Air.) SYDNEY, Sept. 18. » Trapped by ammonia fumes in a butcher's ehop in Pitt Street, City, on Monday, a man was rescued unconscious by a work mate. The two men, and two other employees who were also affected by fumes, were treated at hospital. The four men. were Wallace Pryor, Thomas Pry or (no relation), John Murphy and Harold Fulton. A lorry backing into a dock at the rear of the shop broke the valve of an ammonia pipe of the refrigeration plant. Fumes poured into the 'building, choking and blinding Thomas Pryor and Murphy, who were working nearby. They rushed upstairs to a dressing room above the dock. The funies followed them, and they found themselves trapped. The room had no exit except the stairs, up which the fumes were pouring. The window was barred. With a hand clasped over his mouth and nostrils, Murphy fought his way down again, reaching the ground level on the point of collapse. He told Wallace Pryor and Fulton, who had been forced out of the storage room of the ehop by the fumes, that Thomas Pryor was trapped. Wallace Pryor made his way to the barred window of the dressing room, where he found Thomae Pryor unconscious with his head between the bars of the iron grille, through which heavy ammonia fumes were coming. "I tried to purchase the bars apart with a piece of iron," said Wallace Pryor, "but the wooden frame buret away and the grille didn't budge. I was feeling pretty sick myself. The funies had partly blinded* me and I could scarcely breathe. My head was aching violently and I felt as if my scalp was lifting off. Then someone threw a tomahawk on to the roof. Whoever did that saved Tommy's life. I was able to hack away the brickwork holding the bare and wrench them free. I pulled Tomniv through the opening and carried him to the end of the roof as firemen came up a ladder."