Morning journal and courier., 1880-05-20
Thursday Morning, May 20, 1880.
THE GREAT OIL FIRES.

 habit than an 'foil region, as the sad record of what has taken place in the Bradford (Pa. oil district during the last two weeks shows Since May from ], 500 to {, 900 persons have been left homeless by the fires which have been so frequent and disastrous there, and between 800, GOO and 400, 900 barrels of oil and more than TOO oil rigs, with their en- zines, boilers and expensive machinery, have been burned. Thousands of acres of valua- ble timber have also been consumed. And the end is not yet, for fires are still raging in the unfortunate district.
 The conditions for disastrous fires in the Bradford oil region are especially favorable. The wells are flowing ones and are constantly pouring forth streams of the most infiamma- ble material. Networks of pipe cover the ground, which, together with the buildings, fences and all the surroundings, is literally saturated with crude petroleum. Even the puddles in the roads are oil. Natural gas is
 used in all the houses for light and fuel and at the oil wells as fuel, and from pipes set at intervals in the ground pillars of flame twen- ty feet and more in height arise. Nitro-gly-
 cerine factories are erected at convenient
 points in the region, and this destructive
 agent is daily transported on wagons
 through the oil districts for use in newly
 drilled wells for starting the oil. Tanks,
 holding from 1000 to 25, GOO barrels of petro-
 leum each, abound in every district. The
 premature explosion of a nitro glycerine
 torpedo, the alighting of spark from a
 locomotive or imprudent lighting of the
 natural gas in some one of the finder boxes
 called dwellings, is sufficient to turn the
 whole. country for miles around into sea of
 flame in an incredibly short time. A torpedo
 exploded near Rev City on Mayo and in
 few hours 10 miles of territory was swept by
 fire more than 300 oil wells, 100000 barrels of oil and the whole of Rev City being consumed. Two days later a woman was
 lighting the gas in her store at Rixford. The
 city was destroyed with a large number of
 wells and 11O OOO barrels of oil were con-
 stunned. Three days after spark from
 locomotive started a fire in Tram Hollow,
 Otter City, Morrisburg, Oil Center and Mid
 daughville, 200 oil wells and 80, GOO barrels of oil were consumed.
 correspondent of the New York Times
 gives a graphic account of some of the
 incidents connected with these great fires.
 During the fire of May 12 railroad trestle
 over deep gully was surrounded by flames and it not being considered safe to cross it
 fifty passengers who were on train got of
 and started to cross the gully on foot. Some distance above the trestle a seven-thousand-
 barrel oil tank was burning. Just as the
 passengers reached the bottom of the gully,
 which is about 20 feet deep and 50 wide, with sloping sides, the top of the tank fell in and the oil poured over the edge in one mass of flame. Hundreds of barrels of oil came
 rushing down the gully. The flame was 30 feet high, and roared like hurricane. The alarm was given to the people who were in it's path below, and by great effort they all succeeded in reaching the summit on the other side as the stream of fire swept by. Fortunately there were women or children among them, or the consequences would have been terrible, as it was narrow escape for the men, all of them active oil producers, used to the dangers of an oil fire. During the Rev City fire, tank was burning fercely near the railroad, throwing up mass of smoke and flame 100 feet high. The wind was blowing stifiy, being characterized by sudden, strong gusts and whirlwinds. One of these latter caught the fire at the tank, separated flame and smoke in body from it and carried the great cloud of fire upward into the air for 200 feet, and then it was caught by current that hurled it westward for three-quarters of a mile. In it's flight it descended rapidly toward the earth, firing six oil derricks house belonging to @ man l named Corners, barn, 1,O00-barrel tank of oil, and, alighting in the woods, started a terrible confagration in a district that was considered removed from all danger. The 1 flying fire leaped over a space of half a mile ] without communicating flames to anything 1 in that area, confning it's work of destruc- tion to the last quarter of mile of it's flight l At the same fire three men were surrounded i by the flames and saved their lives by covering themselves up with earth in a 1 newly -plowed garden, where they remained l from ? o'clock in the afternoon until in the evening At o'clock the heat was so intense ] that they bade each other goodbye, expecting to perish, but they escaped with badly 1 burned faces and impaired eyesight.
 Of course great deal of suffering exists in 1 the afflicted district. Hundreds of people | are now in the woods, waiting the building of houses for them, and several deaths from l fright and over-exertion have occurred. All that is possible is being done for the sufferers, but their lot is and will be for some time to 1 come hard one.