CO129-549-3 Gas explosion disaster 15-5-1934 - 10-1-1935 — Page 17

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плод

No. 523.

اله

Ausci

Sir,

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONG KONG.

11th October, 1934.

17

I have the honour to report that one of the

Gasometers belonging to the Hong Kong and China Gas Company,

Limited, situated at West Point, with tenement houses in

close proximity on two sides, exploded on the 14th May, 1934,

the explosion being attended with the loss of thirty-six

lives, injuries to some fifty persons and serious damage by

fire to some fifteen houses.

2.

At the subsequent Coroner's enquiry which

was directed nominally towards the death of one of the

victims but in fact embraced the whole occurrence, the Jury found that the original cause of the disaster was an escape of gas from the holder due to the failure of the side sheeting and that the side sheeting failed from wastage due to corrosion.

The Jury stated that it leant to the opinion that the original ignition was caused by sparks from the tearing of the plates

as the gasometer fell. From the evidence placed before them

the Jury was satisfied that the gasometer was originally erected and subsequently maintained in accordance with general

practice of gas engineering. This practice, however, they had been advised by expert witnesses, presaged the life of a holder at forty to fifty years without any internal examination.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

SIR P. CUNLIFFE-LISTER, G.B.E., M.C., M.P.

&C.,

&C.,

&C.