New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-12-12
The Danger OF New York.

a single kerosene lamp upset in a stable
started the fire that destroyed Chicago. In
TINS city, within the region bounded by Wall,
William, and Fulton streets, and the East
river, we have moro than one hundred build
ings in which thousands ofgallons of kerosene
are stored. These buildings are far more in
fiammable than the Chicago stable.
The trains which must, sooner or later, fire
the city are laid, and the matches placed
close beside them. The great petroleum fire
OF New York is destined to eclipse in magni-
tude and destructiveness the largest fires that
have yet been known in this country.
The mere storage Of petroleum IN any
quantity within the city limits is, of itself, a
danger full of menace. This danger, how
ever, is greatly increased in the districts of
New FORK in which the petroleum-dealers
are chiefly congregated, by the manner in
which the oil is stored. The buildings in
which it is kept have thin walls and doors
thoroughly saturated with the infiammable
substance, so that they would burn with the
iierceness of carefully-prepared llre-ship.
None OF these buildings make even the pre-
tense OF being iire-proof, and most Of them
have been standing for many years, until
their woodwork has become as dry as tinder
In the cellars of nearly all Of them are pools
OF oil, leaked from broken casks, and. rs a
rule, it is found that when cask of oil is ac-
cidentally spilled in the cellar of an oil ware
house, the fluid manages to find its way into
the adjoining cellars. The Goals, kindling-
wood, and shavings used in these establish
ments arc usually kept in these oil-soaked
cellars, and where tar, turpentine, and resin
form part of the stock in trade Of the propri-
etor, they, too, are generally stored with the
oily kindling-wood and well-soalsed Goals in
the same greasy cellar.
Nevertheless, the oil-men are not content
with these preparations for fire. 1t is true
that lighted cigar dropped on the floor of
almost any of their storehouses, or even in
the pools of oil that frequently stand on the
adjoining sidewalk, would produce rapid
and resistless fire. The kindling of this fire
is not, however, left to the chance cigar or
the accidental match. Those dangerous
chemical compounds called gasoline and
naphtha, together with kerosene of so vii
famous quality that it will explode without
the slightest apparent provocation, are lib
orally stored in close proximity to the petro-
leum casks. These compounds will some day
explode spontaneously, and set on fire the
petroleum, turpentine, and tar. The flames
spreading from one oil-soaked building to
another, and following the trains of Oil con-
Meeting the cellars, will burn with fury that
nothing can resist. Water will be of no
avail, Ior TIC DlaZlnp OIL, HOatlng on us sur
face, will be dif'used all the more readily
whenever there is sufficient water to float it
from one block to another. Nothing but the
hazardous experiment of blowing up houses
by the dozen would arrest fire that once
obtained Roadway in the city oil district.
Was there ever madness more reckless
than this? In the part of the city where the
streets are narrow, and the warehouses
lofty, scores of buildings, baked under the
suns of thirty summers, are filled with leaky
casks of the most inflammable oil in exist
ence. The floors and stairways are saturated
with oil, and the cellars are filled, either with
oil-soaked kndlings, or with tar and turpen-
tine. These chemicals, which take fire spon-
taneously, are placed in the midst of great
collections of unrivaled combustibles, and
the proprietors blindly trust that the inevita-
BILE fire will be postponed until they have
withdrawn from business. To prate of the
dangers of Mansard roofs, Of buildings not
wholly fre-proof, and Of an insufficient sup
ply of water, is the merest folly so long as
the infinitely greater danger of the oil-ware-
houses is unheeded. What are we going to
do about it? Are the oil-men to be COM
PEELED to remove their infammable stores
from the city, or are we quietly to wait for
the certain conflagration that will otherwise
lay New York in ashes, at least below the
City Hall Park?-N. 7. Times.