A PETROLEUM FIRE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2533, 21 June 1909, Page 6

A PETROLEUM FIRE.

'WENTY ACRES OF FLAMING OIL

By a fire at the oil, petroleum, and issenc© depot of the North of France tail way Company at St. Ouon damage !o the amount of over £40,000 was lone. At one time the flames covered |0 acres of ground, and 1000 tons of oil fere destroyed. It is supposed that a park from an engine started the fire. f ’he depot is an old one, and all the jpproaches to it are saturated with oil, i> that a spark or red-hot cinder would bon cause a blaze. Any way, a workman noticed some casks in flames, but bough the alarm was given at once the [re spread with lightning-like rapidity. \no after another the storage sheds tere involved, arid as the barrels exported the contents ran over the ground | a blazing mass, until there was a cry lake covering some 20 acres. All he local fire brigades were summoned !ut all they could do was to prevent be fire from, spreading. Indeed, had fiey wished, the firemen could not have >t near, the heat was so terrific. Even ) trot within a hundred yards the men ad to have wet clothes over their faces, he heavy, black smoko, too, which rose from the burning oil, was suffocat-

f° r . As the fire spread it caught the tele■aplv poles at the side of the railway, ad they tumbled down one after 'ano-. for the falling wires proving a source $r considerable danger. 'lhere is an ectric power station close by, and it as feared that this, too, would be des•oved. This was fortunately prevent--1 ‘but a workman who was on the roor' [ithe electric power building was insert in one of his shoulders by a fall, id another man was nearly clectroited bv catching hold of a live wire, f kefep hack the crowd soldiers were im moned, but when they had gone the s o ple became such a nuisance that the Ue had to he turned on them before, Ilf would retire. One. of the most darpersons on the scene was . a cineatograph operator, who, .disregarding linger, worked his apparatus until ho ill used all his stoex of films. --A luisin"-side to the disaster was seen the soldiers stationed round the before the flames reachgeclto escape were young pigs, and when avctvofrd they were eaten by