SUDDEN EXPLOSIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 December 1938, Page 4

SUDDEN EXPLOSIONS

DUE TO GAS IN ELECTRIC SUBWAY STARTLING OCCURRENCE IN AUCKLAND. POWER SUPPLY INTERRUPTED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, December 4. Residents in the city were startled between 8 and 9 o’clock this morning by the loud boom of two explosions which occurred at an interval of about half an hour, and the alarm was heightened by the simultaneous failure of electric power. The power in some parts of the area affected was off till after 11 a.m., and many people dependent upon electricity were forced to have cold breakfasts. The first explosion occurred in a manhole containing electric cables under the footpath at the corner of Quay Street and King’s Wharf and, though the force of the detonation was sufficient to break the heavy iron and concrete cover to the pit in several pieces, no other damage was done. The second explosion occurred in a similar manhole across the road at the corner of Britomart Place and Quay Street. Four large windows in the offices of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company were completely shattered. Fortunately no pedestrians were about at the time. The noise of both explosions was Heard plainly over a wide radius. The first report was noticed even as far as Takapuna, but the second explosion was the more spectacular. Small pieces of broken glass were scattered over the footpath, and a considerable volume of smoke issued from a large rectangular hole, the cover of which was also broken. Smoke could still be seen coming from the hole in the afternoon, though the electricity service was then almost normal again. The manager of the electric power board,. Mr R. H. Bartley, said the trouble occurred in a subway through which direct current cable feeders ran. the explosion was evidently the result of an accumulation of gas which filtered through into the manholes, where a fault in one of the feeders caused it to ignite. Mi’ Bartley said there had been a similar accumulation of gas once before, but without an explosion. An investigation into the seepage of gas, which might be sewerage gas, was being made. The gas was not from the cables, which were lead-covered. No damage was caused inside the Colonial Sugar Refining Company’s offices., the glass apparently having blown outward. The windows were boarded up. Hotels in the city were affected and cooking was carried on with difficulty by candle light in some cases. Lifts were out of action and emergency lighting had to be used.