WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 630, 5 April 1929, Page 9

WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY?

LONDON GAS EXPLOSION BIG SURVEY RECOMMENDED (Australian a)id N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Reed. 9.5 a.m. LONDON, Thursday. An immediate thorough survey of London’s vast underground workings of every description, to prevent a repetition of the great explosion which shook Bloomsbury and Holborn like an earthquake during Christmas week, doing damage estimated at £500,000, is the outstanding recommendation of the commission of inquiry which sat to investigate the disaster. It is understood that the commission decided that gas was responsible for the explosion, but it has not fixed the liability, consequently a great legal fight is expected to settle who is to pay for the damage, which to streets and sewers alone, amounts to £70,000, and to compensate shopkeepers and tenants. The commission urges a more rigid inspection of gas, electric and post office’s underground services, and workmen engaged in tunnel work, also a strict adherence to safety regulations. Although the work of repairing the damage is proceeding day and night it will be three months before all the streets are reconditioned. They will not be ready for traffic for another month after that.