SHOP-COPING SHATTERED BY LIGHTNING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 190, 1 November 1927, Page 1

SHOP-COPING SHATTERED BY LIGHTNING

Kkyber Pass Explosion W ,TH the detonation of a howitzer, lightning struck the coping of Hutchinson Bros. Ltd.’s store in Khyber Pass Road, this morning, scattering bricks and cement over the roadway. Flying fragments struck two pass-ers-by who were 50 yards away from the shop, cutting their faces. The staff of the store, especially those in the ofiice upstairs, received a bad shock, but no one was injured. “It was exactly the same sort of sensation as being blown up,” said the manager, Mr. V. E. Elliott, who had that unenviable experience at Messines. “There was a vivid flash, immediately followed by an explosion, and a sharp shock. It was something like a howitzer firing over your head.” CAST-IRON MELTED The lucky escape of Mr. Elliott and the girls who were in the office upstairs was discovered by the electrician. The lightning had struck the main cuts-out of the electrical supply in the room and blown them to bits. The cast-iron coverings were melted and the porcelain left In fragments. Striking the highest point of the building, the coping in the front, the lightning took out a wedge-shaped segment of the bricks and cement. Large fragments were sent across the road and lodged on the verandah of the confectioner’s shop opposite. The street for 100 yards or so was littered with bricks. After the shock the letters “TAB” of the “Established” sign on the coping were missing. One of the staff was holding an iron door with one hand at the time of the strike —he does not want another electric shock. Telephone wires were left in a severed tangle by the explosion, which was no small danger to the traffic and pedestrians of the busy thoroughfare. The lightning evidently struck from behind, for all the bricks were thrown in a northerly direction.