GAS EXPLOSION

Hokitika Guardian, 21 December 1928, Page 5

GAS EXPLOSION

IN HIGH HO],BORN

MANY MIRACULOUS ESCAPES

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright).

(Received this day at 10 a.m.)

LONDON, Dec. 20,

There "as an extraordinary gas explosion at High llolburn at eight Eli is morning when business men and women were coming into the city. Half a mile of roadway was torn up, kerbstones were lifted like feathers, and pedestrians were Hung into the air. A horse was killed and a taxi-cab overturned. A number ol man-holes exploded with a noise resembling exploding bombs.

Several Post Office workmen were seen lying in the ruins of a manhole which was ablaze when the explosion ended. The Eire Brigade and ambulances were quickly on the spot, and the men were removed to the hospital. It is astonishing the loss ol lile was not serious. People were blown out ol their hods in the neighbourhood. There were no fatalities, though there were many miraculous escapes. Gas covered a wide area, which the police cleared. Several people on the outskirts were overcome by tli fumes and taken to the hospital. The underground railway was not affected. The police had difficulty in clearing the streets of people who lieliovod the underground had blown up. i i,e accident apparently originated through workmen with a blowing machine laying cables.

FURTHER PARTJCULARS

LONDON, Dec. 20

Deep fissures ran the whole way along tiic line. Huge craters wore blown in too roadway. Ton blocks ol solid concrete were burled aside. Shops were damaged and parts of the roadway dropped several feet at one point. 'I be gas is still a lire. A walormaln burst, Hooding many basements. It appears a linesman descended a manhole to connect a blower with a switch. A few minutes later a sheet of llamo rushed up. The man managed to scramble out with his trousers afiic, but he was terribly burned . VERY EXTENSIVE DAM AGIO. (Received this day at 12.25. p.m.) LONDON, December 20. Britain has not known anything to equal the explosion. A district of a mile long and half a mile wide is deprived of every public service for some weeks. The traffic dislocation is the worst in London’s history. Business is at a standstill. Repairs will cost £50,000. Seventeen victims have been taken to the hospital. The man-hole cover, weighing four hundredweight, was thrown into the air and crashed through the roof of a three-storey house and came to rest on a hod on tho first floor. A torrent of lire roared fifty foot into the air from the crater, and street fissures several hundred yanks long spouted lire.