Explosion of phosgene gas at Hamburg

INDEXED Extract MANY from the "Times" of May 22nd, 1928. 154 A POISON GAS DISASTER. EXPLOSION IN HAMBURG. MANY VICTIMS. (From OUR own CORRESPONDENT. BERLIN, MAY 21. Through the explosion of a tank containing phosgene gas on Sunday. a large part of southern Hamburg was threatened for several hours, and the danger has not. yet completely passed. Seven persons have died from the effects of poisoning, and more than 100, some of them in a critical condition, are in hospital. The tank was one of several at the Stolzenburg chemical works. which lies in the industrial district behind the docks on the southern bank of the Elbe. and the lid seems to have been thrown off. through expansion. at about 5 p.rn. yesterday. The invisible gas quickly spread over the adjoining dis- trict. Numerous reports of cases of poisoning gave the first hint of disaster to the authorities. and the source of the danger was eventually located by tracing the direction of the reports. Large forces of police and firemen were quickly on the scene, but could not cope with the peril because of the lack of anti-gas equipment. A telephone call to the Berlin fire authorities brought a motor-car with gas masks and other equipment racing through the night. and the nearest detach- ment of Reichswehr with gas masks was hurried to the scene. Meanwhile the gas continued to move south. Passing through the streets and over a tract of land much used by holiday-makers, it reached the open country, leaving a trail of victims in its wake. Its effects are stated to have been felt up to six miles away. Many cattle were overcome by it and have since had to be slaughtered. Something like panic occurred during the night in the district surrounding the Stolzenburg works, and the police, many of whom were them- selves overcome, had great difficulty in transporting the occupants of the houses in the district by road and water to safe places, guarding the vacated dwellings, and closing the streets. The homeless people were gathered together in hospitals and in the emigrant sheds of the Ham- burg-Amerika Line. "POCKETS" OF GAS. Finally. towards morning. the Reichswehr from Ratzeburg and the experts from Berlin arrived, and the tank was attacked, under the protection of gas masks, with water and ammonia and rendered impotent. The danger, however, is not over, for phosgene, which is heavier than air, keeps to the ground level, and there are many "pockets" of gas still hanging about in the district. The best thing that could happen now would be a heavy fall of rain, which would neutralize it, but a change of wind might redistribute it and produce further disaster. Moreover, as the gas retains its poisonous qualities for a comparatively long period, it will be some days before the population of Hamburg will be able to breathe freely again. It is stated that the remaining tanks are to be destroyed as soon as possible. The Press is already making searching inquiries as to the origin of the phosgene and the circumstances in which it came to be present in a large city without ricient precautions being taken to safeguard the population. The disaster seems likely to reawaken public dis- cussion over a matter which the authori- ties would prefer to be forgotten, for the Stolzenburg frim was mentioned in " revelations " made by the Socialists in 1926. It was then alleged that during the Ruhr struggle the Reichswehr authori- ties, seeking a way to prepare against possible disturbances without coming into conflict with the Inter-Allied Military Control organization.