AUCKLAND EXPLOSIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 135, 5 December 1938, Page 15

AUCKLAND EXPLOSIONS

MANHOLES IN CITY

ELECTRIC POWER FAILS

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, December 4,

Residents in. the city were startled between 8 and 9 o'clock this morning

!by two explosions, which occurred at an interval of p.bout half an hour, and the alarm was heightened by the simultaneous failure of electric power. The . power in some parts of the area affected was off until after 11 a.m.

The first explosion occurred in a mnhole containing electric cables under the footpath at the corner of Quay Street and King's Wharf, and the heavy iron and concrete cover to tne pit was broken into several pieces. No other damage was done.

The second explosion occurred in a similar manhole across the road at the corner of Britomart Place and Quay Street. Four large windows in the offices of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company were completely shattered. Fortunately no pedestrians were about at the time.

The noise of both explosions was heard plainly over a wide radius. The first report was noticed even as far away as Takapuna, butthe second explosion was the more spectacular. Small pieces of broken glass were scattered over the footpath, and a considerable volume of smoke issued from a large rectangular hole, the cover of which was also broken. Smoke could still be seen coming from the hole in the afternoon, though the electricity, service was then almost normal again.

The manager of the Electric Power Board, Mr. R. H, Bartley, said the trouble occurred in a subway through which direct current cable feeders rah. The explosion was evidently the result of an accumulation of gas which filtered through into Jhe manholes, where a fault in one of the feeders caused it to ignite. Mr. Bartley said that there had been a similar accumulation of gas once before, but without an explosion. An investigation into . the seepage of gas, which might be sewer gas, was being made. The gas was not from cables, which were leadcovered.

No damage was caused inside the Colonial Sugar Refining Company's offices. Hotels in the city were affected, and cooking was carried on with difficulty. Lifts were out of action and emergency lighting had to be used.