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Sam and Dennis were planning a trip into the bush, only this time they were taking a gas ring and a gas bottle to cook on. Last time they had tried to do it the Aborigine way and light a fire with twigs, but they couldn't find enough twigs to light the fire. They didn't have enough money to buy a gas bottle, so they borrowed old Ma Hutchins' gas bottle. She had died at Christmas.
Unable to carry the heavy gas bottle home, they stashed it underneath the schoolhouse, planning to pick it up tomorrow morning with the trailer. Sam and Dennis didn't know it, but the gas bottle was leaking.
Eamonn was caretaker at the school in Crocodile Bay. He was a lifelong smoker. He lit a cigarette and took a long drag. When he finished, he discarded the cigarette butt under the schoolhouse. There was a loud explosion heard for miles around and the little wooden schoolhouse disappeared from town.
It should have been a disaster, but everyone survived. Only moments after the ambulance arrived, a little girl of five was found unconscious. Someone asked: 'Is she still breathing?' 'Yes, I think she's alive,' came the reply.
