FIVE MEN INJURED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 129, 17 June 1937, Page 7

FIVE MEN INJURED

Gas Explosion in Basement SHEET OF FLAME SYDNEY, May 7. Flve men were injured, two seriously, in an explosion in the basement at the rear of the Customs Hdusc, Circular quay, Sydney. Only a few minutos before, foviV of the men had been forced by fiimes to leavel tho pit where the explosion occurred. They and others in the vleinity had extrnordinary escapes. A huge sheet of flame, which immediatejy followed the detonation, inflieted painful burns on thp face, arms and bodies of men working in the building. "We got out of the pit, and a couple ofvus were looking over the edge,'' said Jack Farley, one of the injured men. "Suddenly there was a dull roar bejow us, and a-great red flame leaped upwards. It burned us terribly. It was like a red-hot blade being drawn aeross." One man, Osweld M'Connell, was hurled high into the air, and he crashed to the floor. The others near him wero blown over. His oyeralls burning fjercoly, M'Connell leaped to his feet and staggered up the steps . leading to a lane. The flames caused M'Connell terrible agony, but he ihowed remarkable fortitude by tearing off his overalls. Detectives believe that some substance, which caused an explosive gas, found its way into the sewer, passing underneath the Customs House. It is thought this gas was ignited by a ipark from the l«ad to an electrio light, which was being used to illuminate the plt. A connection to the pit was being made from the laboratories on one of the upper floors in the Customs House, Detectives subsequently examined tho plans of all buildings served by the sewerage pipe in an effort to flnd out the cause of the explosion, M'Connell had been in the pit, on several oceasions during the last few days. He mentioned that there was a smell of gas. The men were examining the pit through an open manhqle and M'Gonnel was lijside when thb explosion occurred.