SERIOUS ACCIDENT AT MANGAMAHOE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 27478, 12 November 1887, Page 2

SERIOUS ACCIDENT AT MANGAMAHOE.

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.

Yesterday morning (Friday) between ten-and.oleven-o'clock two men named James Wells and Thomas Gcohegan, met with a serious accident while blasting in what is known as the " big cutting" between tho tunnel and Seymour's on Mr Danaber's contract at Mangamahoe, The men were working on.lho.facß of a cutting .thirty feet high, ou a ledge about, six feet wide. They had just put in a charge of powder and ignited the fuse, but through some cause it would not burn, so to facilitate matters the end of the fuse was, slit and a light again, applied, when the fuse began to splutter and sent a spark into the adjacent powder keg, causing a terrific explosion. Gaohegan and Wells were both enveloped in flame and smoke, the former receiving the, fnll force of the explosion, his face and hands being severely burned. Assistance was soon at hand and the men wore relieved of their burning clothes, and extricated from their perilous position. The unfortunate men had' their wounds (principally burns) dressed by their comrades and a stretcher was procured to convey Geohegan, who was moi;e seriously hurt, to the Mangamahoe Railway Station, Wells being able to walk that distance with the ; assistance of his. fellow workmen. They were brought to the Masterton Hospital yesterday afternoon, where their injuries received the immediate attention of Br Hosking and the Hospital staff. On examination both men were found to be considerably burned about the chest, arms, and face, the whole of the hair being burned off their heads The extent ofthe injuries cannot be ascertained atpresentowing totheskiii being so much puffed, but from appearances the doctor thinks that the burns are all superficial. • The most ■' remarkable thing about the accit'ent is, that the men were not hurled to the bottom.of the cutting; if they had been they must have been dashed to.pieces on the rocks, One of the men states' that he saw the danger when the fuse began to splutter, but only had time to throw himself, against the side of the cutting before the keg of powder exploded.