Morning journal and courier., 1883-05-11
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. FIRED BY LIGHTNING. Oil Tanks Struck and Set
 Ablaze. RIVERS OF FLAMING FLUID. The Loss Nearly a Million
 and & Half.
 Condition of the Wheat Crop. Returns to the Agri- cultural Department.
FIRE RECORD.

Fired by Lightning-Otl Storage Works AbIaze Rivers of Flaming Oil - Six Lives Lost-A Loss of a Million and 8 Half. NEW YORK, May 1o.-A violent thunder storm swept over Jersey City between three
 and four o'clock this morning. The electric
 current played close to the earth, and every
 flash of light shot almost perpendicularly
 downward. Shortly after three o'clock a
 bolt lighted on one of the tanks of the Oil
 Storage works on the shore at Caven Point.
 The next instant there was burst of flame
 to the skies, with dense volume of black
 smoke in it's wake. All the surrounding
 country was shaken by the thunders
 of the explosion. The sides of
 the great iron tank gave way, and
 the flaming and blazing oil poured out
 like an angry river, and flowed down the
 avenue between the rows of enormous tanks
 toward the river. In a short time the flames
 communicated with three huge tanks and
 they exploded simultaneously with terrific
 force. The fragments of iron were hurled 8
 distance of half a mile, and the burning oil
 was scattered in all directions. The entire
 fire department had been summoned,
 but their services were almost use
 less, as the burning streams of
 oil poured through the yard firing
 tank after tank on the east side ard licking
 up the buildings. The store house, solid
 structure, where the burrelled oil was kept,
 was attacked by the flames and succunbed.
 The engine house went next, and the oil and
 water pump houses, the sunken tanks and
 the machine shop quickly followed, and the
 .I- oG k1Nap a
 ing mass of flame. Several of the employees
 ventured between the blazing tanks, followed
 some distance behind by the firemen. The
 latter were ordered to retire, but they had
 not fairly gotten out of the danger when the
 explosion came. Some of the fremen
 and citizens who had gathered with them
 were prostrated by the shock. The scat tered blaze pursued them so closely that one
 of the retreaters had his hair burned of. The
 ron lid of one of the tanks was carried a
 imile away and dropped down on West Side
 avenue. A heavy beam, caught up Tn the midst of the flame, was hurled high in air,
 and fell, flaming torch, upon hothouse three-quarters of a mile distant. Showers of sparks and fragments of burning wood and of metal, heated to white heat, filtered Ocean avenue, over half a mile away, so that travel there became unsafe.
 Volumes of smoke, of inky blackness, hung like 8 pail over the brilliant blaze beneath. The neat D6C6u0 BO 1nE0us0 buhb 1uO CIOWu5 OA spectators that lined the hill hundreds of yards away had to retreat. When the fire men turned, after their retreat from the threatened explosion, sheets of the flame GOV cred the gap through which they had escaped, and no trace of the men who had been with them could be found. Their es- cape must have been cut of. They were doubtless prostrated by the shock of the ex- plosion and then roasted in the sea of blazing oil with which the ground was instantly flooded The following is complete list of the men. whose lives are known te have been lost, but whose remains cannot be found although the firemen, police and citizens have been search ing for them for over ten hours John Herbert, assistant superintendent of the Eagle refinery, (which belongs to the Stand ard Oil company; George Davis, an engin- eer Joseph Jenkins 8 bin cooper; Henry Kegler, carpenter; Richard Conklin, pipe filter; and a boy, William Curry, helper in the blacksmith shop. All the tanks con tained crude oil, and while the one that was touched by lightning was burning angrily the above named persons were standing near tank No. ', one of the largest in the yard, which was built on the edge of the bay. The excessive heat ignited the gas in the tank and it ex- ploded with loud report. The tank was torn to pieces, and ali that was left was a little of the brick. Some of the six unfor- tunate human beings were carried by the flying mass of iron and brick into the water, while others were burned to ashes in the fiery sea of oil which spread over the waters and down the railroad track, consuming ev erything in it's path. The flames swept over fifteen acres of ground, leaving nothing but heaps of ashes. During the afternoon and early evening there was mile and half of burning oil floating on the tide water of Claremont. Twelve tanks were destroyed. Two immense storage warehouses which held one hundred and fifty thousand barrels of oil, eighteen cars, three docks, six barges Gall unloaded), and three small brick buildings. the engine room, office and machine shops. Herbert and Davis were married men and lived near the works. Their wives were at house near the scene wild with grief The tanks held about twenty thousand barrels of crude oil each. The losses will. probably very nearly