A PALMERSTON BLAZE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1821, 6 August 1913, Page 9

A PALMERSTON BLAZE.

STATION ON FIRE.

EXPLOSION AJ^GAS : ..Wp > BK6..., (By Telegraph.—Speoial CorroaDondcnt.) Palmerston NAugust!». Aft' explosiott. .;vhicji' M ,tfjrncd ;.the Pol- - merston, North railway, station into ' a brilliant beacon light after breakfast.yeoterday morning consumed in half ait hour- enough kerosene gas tohavo lighted the Main Trunk' train from' Wellington ■to Auckland twelve times over. ' Tho trouble started while an impurity known as hydro-carbon was being drawn off. in the gas-making works. In this interesting place a special heating process converts kerosene into gas, which is reduced, in volume under-huge pressure, and oonveyed to retorts, from which the cylinders 0119 sees beneath railway carriages are filled to light the trains and cook the dinners aboard. In the process, of mamiiacturo the impurity,, hydro-carbon, is given off. It is.a.highly inflammable material, containing the elements of naptha, benzine, aiid other lively'fluids, So inflammable is it that the men' who handle it declare that if a thin 6treak . were allowed to trickle from a leaky bucket from one end of Palmerston's long platform to the other, a flamo applied at one end would leap to tho other end with the speed of gunpowder. Similar combustibility attends the v.v pour which rises from it. Therefore, when Engineer J. Gatfield came.on dut> in the morning, and remarked on the heaviness of the vapour in the air, theru was' some reason in the remark. Tho works are sandwiched between a busy railjvay platform inside and the ■ Main Street thoroughfare on the outside—a combination which suggests ndded peril to a floating, inflammable vapour. Gatfield, who is now in tho public hospital buried in "bandages, says he does not know exactly what happened. He had been continuing the drawing off of the hydro-carbon, and was turning away—his back towards it—when a dazzling light, such as ho tad mover seen before, enveloped liim. lie rushed nut, crying ".Fire! I'm burned." - His face and arm were badly seared. A great blaze, resembling a miniature volcano, 'is said to have met tho gaze ot those employees who, at the sound of- tho explosion, rushed out from ' tho other sheds. Some took Gatfield into their care, and summoned a doctor, whilo others rushed to the fire hose. The flames were inextinguishable, but tho water did good work in ■ saving - the fire from travelling, along the entire station building. The six retorts, containing 7000 cubic feet of compressed kerosene gas, wero soon melted or burned, and their contents helped to build up tho mountain of flame. -There wa3 no other oourse but to let it burn out.' The gas building is now a charred, roofless skeleton, and. the equipment a ruin. Gatfield was 'the only occupant of the ■works at tho time. If he had been stnnned by tho explosion, no' power on earth could have got him out alive. A later message states that the gas lo?>. in-the fire was 27.000 fret, equal to half a week's output. Rebuilding has begun. The retorts escaped damage, and as the generating plant was not injured,gasinakintr on a limited scale will continue. Gatfield • was attempting to pluckily extinguish tho spilt hydro-carbon when the entire -drum exploded, knocking .him through tho doorway to tho platform. The doctor hopes that tho burns are not serious.