HOMER TUNNEL TRAGEDY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 93, 6 May 1937, Page 10

HOMER TUNNEL TRAGEDY

Pr«>^3 AM'i-nrvin.)

Graphic Story oi Survivors CAUSE OF AVALANCHE

(H. TplpcTnn'i

EJVBECABGXIXs Irfurt Night. J Pull details of the trageay at Homer Tunnel yesterday morning when two men were killed and fout i injured in an avalanche did not reach Invercargill till to-night. A Southland Times reporter, who left for the tunnel early yesterday afternoon, did not reach there tjli this morning and left on the return journey at one o'clock, bringing with him three of the injured men. The bodies of the two men KiUed, Donaid Francis Hulse, engineer in charge, and Thomas William Smith, overseer, have not yet been brought down. Tjie three men who were brought, Itdown to-night were:— John Miehael Francis, of Invercargill, contusions and ahock. John Milne, of Invercargill, eon-' Itusions. Leslie Kelly, of Invercargill, lacerated scalp and injuries to the left •shonlder. The fourth man injured, John Thomas iLloyd, who suffered slight concnssion, a lacerated scalp and injuries 9b the left leg, is remaining at the camp for a few days. I To-day the tunnel mouth showed ! ffttle evidence that the disaster . had J occurred. There was a blanket of snow i left by the avalanche and reinforced by subsequent falls covering the scene. The timbers of tho destroyed buildings were completely covered by snow and but for several overturned trucks and a locomotive, a badly spjintered powor line post and a tangled mass of wire it might easily have been assumed that only an unusually heavy fall of snow had occurred. The Diesel locomotive weighing five and a-half tons had been thrown bodily off the line and » considerable distance down 'the bank, vyhere it lay deeply imbedded in the snow. The tVucks had been throwh off the tip line and the engineer's, motor-car, which had been standing about 40 yards from the tunnel mouth, was deposited on its roof on a huge boulder at the foot of the bank. A strong power pole near the entrance to the tunnel had been splintered off about threq feet from the ! ground level, jagged splinters of timber on the stump indicating the force of the blow which broke it. The remainder of the pole was no where in sight, i Of the buildings which had been re1 erected on similar locations to those destroyed by last year's avalanche there was no sign, the only struet\.e remaining near the entrance to the tunnel being a massive compression j plant and winch' machinery which was m ! exposed, the buildiug which had housed it having been totally destroyed and carried away.

Messrs. Hulse, Smith and Lloyd were in the office when the avalanche swept down without warning and ihe four men injured were working near the mouth of the tunnel. ■ Only a short time after the fatal fall- of snow another avalanche' oceurred; af the same spot but all the men ,, had been withdrawn from the scene , ancT tfie injured and dead removed. Later in the day further avalanches occurred on the same face and? oh various mountain sides surrounding the Homer camp snow came crashihg. down at intervals. Following the alarming experfence of the morning there was con&iderablQ. tensioh at the camp on Tuesday night, this being heightened by the absence jof the electric light due to the bfeakages in the power lines.

Justification for the prohibition ! against men passing over the atea likely to be affected by avalanches was borne out on Tuesday evening, when a tent evaeuated only half an hour earlier was toru from its moorings and hurled across the road at the lower forks slightly below the Cinques. Great difficulty was experienced today in motoring over the road from Hollyford valley to C&scade creek, which was covered in parts by two feet of snow. The Pressman's car was preceded by a snow plough and slow progress made along the road. Once Cascade creek was passed little difficulty was experienced, although , there was water over the road in places. The condition of the injured men when they arrived here to-night was satisfactory.

George Annesley, nead man of the tunnel work, gave a graphic description of the occurrence. "I had been speaking to the engineer and overseers a few feet from the door of the office and turned away to go baek to the .tunnel. The others had entered the office. I had barely moved five paces when the avalanche crashed down without any warning. The force of the wind rather than the snow itself blew me into the mouth of the tunnel and there was a' terrible ^oaring sound as the avalanche' smashed the buildings to matehwood. "As soon as I could recover my senses I called my men to help to dig out the men who had been in the office and others I knew to be buried. When we could grasp the situation we realised that all the buildings which had stood1 near the tunnel mouth had been swept. away and buried. "The diesel locomotive which weighs about five and a-half tons had been' tossed over the bank like an empty box and there was scarcely any sign of the plant which had stood on the spot, "The men set to work with a will and within a short time recovered the body of Mr. Hulse more than three chains from the spot where the office had stood. Mr. Lloyd was some distance nearer and later we recovered the body of Mr. Smith. Both bodies were j. terribly mutilated and Mr. Lloyd sjk

— — " — - T peared to be seriously injured. We eecured assistance for the injured an&l took them back to camp u quickly asl possible. Stressing that no warning of the fall of snow had been received Mr. Annesley said that the visibility had been poor during a heavy snowstorm at the time of the avalanche and before the snow crashed down over the tunnel mouth there was practically no noise. In many eases an avalanche gave sufficient warning of its approach to allow the men to reach safety but on ' this oecasion, as at.°the first fatal oecurence nearly a year ago, the fall was of an insidiously ereeping nature which completely trapped the men. "The actual fall of snow, " said Mr. Annesley, "was not great, but it was accompanied by wind, the strength of which was tremendous. It was the wind which had caused the greatest damage, and after the avalanche had passed there appeared to be little more snow than before." The other workmen injured ia or narrowly escaping from the disaster offered similar opinions concOrning the Jestructive force of the wind which followed a relatively light snowfall. Mr. Lloyd, who was an occupant of the office with the t^o men killed, attributed the whole of the damage to the wind force. He was inelined to .;.cout the suggestion t'hat there had ueea any discussion on the advisabiiity of ceasing work and he said he did not believe that the men had been concerned about the safety of working at the tunnel. It had not been considered that there was any danger. A lookout had not been stationed. Owing to the poor visibility he would have been of uo use. "Messrs Hulse, Smith and I were in the office discussing plans for ventilating the tunnel," he said. "We had been there only five minutes when we ueard a swish of air and turned to looL at each other. "Before we could do more than reeord our impression that an avalanche was upon ns it had swept us out of the building and away, and I remember cothing more until I regained conscicusness in my hut, I consider I was iucky to have been» standing betweeu the other two men in the office and so was saved from the greatest force -oi the blow. "I do not consider that either men or myself were imposed upon in being asked to work at the tunnel that morningy for in my opinion the weathe: ave not the slightest indication of the L jssibility of an avalanche occurrinjr. 7 '