Irishman killed in Darwin blast

Posted

December 16, 2011 14:12:00

Police today cordoned off an area in the inner Darwin suburb of Parap, after a gas cannister in the back of an air conditioning repair van exploded, killing a 24-year-old man. Police are trying to determine the cause of the blast, which littered the area with debris and blew out windows in nearby houses.

Source: The World Today
|
Duration: 2min 4sec

Topics:
home,
disasters-and-accidents,
accidents,
darwin-0800,
australia,
nt

Transcript

EMILY BOURKE: Forensic and crime scene investigators are at the scene of an explosion in suburban Darwin that’s left a 24-year-old Irishman dead.

It appears a gas canister in the back of an air conditioning repair van exploded as the man was heading off for work.

The ABC’s Michael Coggan is at the scene and I spoke to him earlier.

MICHAEL COGGAN: Well at about 6.30 this morning residents in the suburb of Parap were awoken to a large blast that some people described as louder than a thunder clap and it turns out that what appears to have been a gas canister in a work vehicle was ignited by a worker as he was preparing to head off to work and it has blown out a big hole in the roof and has killed, as we understand it, the young worker and left a whole lot of people in this suburb shocked.

EMILY BOURKE: Michael, can you describe the scene.

MICHAEL COGGAN: Well, at the moment I am standing about 100 metres away from the house and crime scene investigators have just done a walk-through of the house and there is a big mess in front of the driveway, a large hole in the roof, a whole lot of debris in the front yard and 20 metres across the road from the house there are other houses with their front windows blown out.

One of the residents has told us that the light fittings in his roof were blown out as a result of the blast so a very significant blast and earlier we spoke to one of the witnesses, Drew Martin and this is how he described the scene.

DREW MARTIN: I ran out of the house, out the front yard, down the road to see what was going on and all I saw to start with was a big plume of black smoke. The guys who live in the house coming out and screaming and needing ambos and stuff like that and unfortunately I took probably one step too many and ended up sort of standing right in front of the poor young guy’s body which is something I don’t ever want to see again.

EMILY BOURKE: That is eye witness Drew Martin.

Michael Coggan reporting there.

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