CAUSE OF EXPLOSION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 251, 21 September 1929, Page 9

CAUSE OF EXPLOSION.

MILLS BOMB IN COAL. CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 20. Though explosives or detonators in the coal were blamed at the time for an explosion in a house at 63 Gloucester Street, in which Mr J. W. Gallagher and his wife were injured, it is now revealed that the explosion was actually caused by a mills bomb which fell into the coal and exploded when put on the fire. Mr Gallagher had a mills bomb which he had brought back from the war as a souvenir, and which he had been told was quite safe because the charge had been taken out. The bomb was in a tin in the shed where the coal was kept, and apparently it fell into the coal box and was taken in and put on the fire with ,coal. The explosion was a particularly violent -one, burying pieces of metal in the wall, and, though at first it was thought that some explosive left in the coal at the mine was responsible for the explosion, some of the pieces of metal in the wall were found to bo parts of a bomb. Mr and Mrs Gallagher were both taken to hospital, and though Mr Gallagher was soon discharged, his wife, in one of whose feet a piece of tho bomb was found, was discharged only a week ago. Instances' have been reported recently in Christchurch of the finding of plugs of samsonite in household coal, but it is authoritatively stated that there is no danger to householders from this form of explosive, as it will quietly burn away.