EXPLOSION IN TUNNEL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 178, 18 October 1927, Page 13

EXPLOSION IN TUNNEL

One Man Dangerously Hurt SECOND LOSES AN EYE Accident at Mt. Albert Three men were injured in an explosion in a tunnel at Morningside to-day. They are all married and two of the men are now inmates of the Auckland Public Hospital.

'J'HE casualty list is as follows:

Mr. G. McMahon, of Shaw Street, Edendale, dangerously ill. Mr. A. Watts, aged 24, Oxton Road, Edendale, eye removed. Mr. H. Jackson, 249 Balmoral Road. Mr. McMahon is in a serious condition and is suffering from head and body injuries and concussion. Mr. Jackson was struck in the back, and Mr. Watts was struck on the head by pieces of flying rock. The men were working in a tunnel on the Mount Albert Borough Council’s drainage works on the Morningside Reserve, and it is thought that a plug of gelignite exploded prematurely. The men were working a drill on a face of rock about 25 feet in the tunnel. They were about 15ft underground.

When the explosion occurred the men were trapped in the tunnel and

the force of the blast stunned them. From information available Mr. McMahon received the full force of the explosion and was knocked senseless. He is now dangerously ill in the hospital. As soon as the men recovered from the force of the blast Mr. Jackson struggled through the debris to help Mr. McMahon, while Mr. Watts groped his way to the shaft and climbed above ground for help. The first men Mr. Watts found were Mr. J. Bonnar, foreman of the drainage works, and his men. They immediately went down the tunnel and brought the injured men, Messrs. Jackson and McMahon, t.o the surface. Dr. W. H. Pettit and Dr. F. W. Fullerton were both called and soon arrived on the scene to attend to the injured men. There are several theories regarding the explosion. One is that a plug of gelignite had at some previous time slipped into the clay, and that today it was caught by the drill which the men were working.