Monday, 13 August 2018

Worker Killed in Fire Extinguisher Explosion




The Avenue, Flitwick c.1920 [Z50/50/41]

Tuesday 13th August 1918: Yesterday evening an employee of the George Kent Ltd. works at Chaul End was killed in an unfortunate accident. Wilfred Joy of The Ridgway, Flitwick, was employed as a fitter at the works, and at about 5.30pm he was apparently unscrewing or doing something with a large fire extinguisher. He was holding the extinguisher between his knees, when for some reason the bottom blew out and the point of the cylinder struck him over the left eye, rebounding between thirty and forty feet. Mr. Joy was taken to the Bute Hospital, where he died at about eight o’clock. A considerable amount of gas escaped in the explosion, and it is not clear whether the cause of death was the injury or the gas. Mr. Joy’s body was identified by his brother Charles Joy, a wheelwright of Leighton Road, Toddington. He told the inquest that his brother was 36 years old, single, and lived with their sister, Mrs. Cunningham. The inquest was adjourned to allow a post-mortem examination to be carried out.

Source: Luton News, 15th August 1918

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