FATAL EXPLOSION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2453, 31 March 1888, Page 2

FATAL EXPLOSION.

TWO Mli.\ T KILLED. (I! V TEI.KO li.U'lt. — I'HKSS ASSOCIATION.) Nal'l Kit, Thursday. A T'ckuiur.H accident occurred at the Wairoa bridgeworks at half-past eleven Inst night, by an explosion of gas, resulting in the death of two men, and severe injury to a third. It appears that about eleven o'clock three men were working in the last cylinder, named Hall, Philip Beattie, and George Klibctt. The firstnamed was down at the bottom fixing the, pumping pipes for the next shift. Be.ittie was in the air-loek, waiting to pull up Ball after having lowered him down. There was nothing for Ebbett to do till twelve o'clock, so he went home, leaving the other two working, and Mr Sellars, the contractor, standing on the staging alongside. At the hour named tl.e cylinder blow up all of a sudden. The air lock was hurled into the air, and fell into the river close to the staging, a portion of which it broke. Mr Cellars was hurled over eight or tc-n feet oil', and landed on the lower platform of the {jile-driver. His right arm was broken in two places, and he was much cut about the face, but was not unconscious. The cylinder, which was down 10 feet in the solid, was burst into fragments, and eight broken lengths have been already noticed. Joseph Ball lies dead at the bottom of the cylinder, and Philip Beattie is supposed to be in the air-lock at the bottom of the river, unless he was blown clear out of it. Ball is a married man, and leaves a wife and three children.