The San Francisco call., 1898-12-08
FIRE DESTROYS OIL TANKS AT
 LOS ANGELES Standards Property
 Burned. CARELESSNESS OF A FIDDLER PROBABLY DROPPED A MATCH INTO BENZINE. Flames Spread So Rapidly That Only a Portion of the Books and
 Valuables Are
 Saved.
CARELESSNESS OF A FIDDLER
DROPPED A MATCH
 INTO BENZINE.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 7.-The ware house of the Standard oil Company and nine tanks of oil were destroyed this afternoon by fire. The nine tanks were small sized. Four of them contained gasoline, one benzine and four linseed oil. Fortunately four large tanks con- taining hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil did not burst If the flames had reached the oil in these tanks, one of which contained gasoline, the fire would have one of the most disastrous this city has ever known. Although E. S.. Sullivan, the local manager, places the damage at only $25,O0O, experts say that $100, 900 will not cover the loss. Little or no insurance was carried.
 Shortly after 8 o'clock this afternoon J. Peterson, an employe of the Stand ard ( il Company, was assisting a ped dler named Stevens to fill his wagon tank with benzine. Peterson was hand ing the benzine to Stevens, who was in the W .on Suddenly Peterson heard a noise and saw that the bucket. into which he was pouring the oil from the faucet, was on fire. Peterson tried to quench t.e flames. but they spread quickly to the benzine tank, which con- tained 1000 gallons of oil. Stevens whipped up his horse and tried to es- cape from the flames, but as he left the yard it was noticed that his wagon was ablaze. The fire was probably due to the carelessneSs of Stevens. who had either lighted a match or had mis- placed Q pipe.
 Manager Sullivan saw the burning wagon, realized the danger to the ware house and rushed to close the fireproof doors. After turning in an alarm he and his attaches did their utmost to rescue the books and valuables. The fire spread so rapidly that only DOT tion was saved before the flames reached the warehouse.
 The benzine tank had been burning for fully fifteen minutes. As soon as the flames beean to lick up that build ing there was a series of explosions which caused the flames to spread quickly all around the warehouse. The smaller tanks began to melt away and the thousands of people that had been attracted by the fire were driven back by fear of an explosion of the gasoline tank.
 At first the flames shot brightly from the gases on the top of the tanks. Then followed the dull, heavy black cloud of the oil fire. At distance the sky seemed to be darkened. On coming nearer, however, cUrving flames could be seen. Beneath the dark cloud over . head Q series of fire areas seemed to form and to trace spiral curves. The warehouse was situated on the river bank between the Dowrey avenue and Buena Vista street bridges, and also between the Santa Fe and South ern Pacific tracks. The Santa Fe runs in a northeasterly direction; the South ern Pacific runs north and south. Seven Santa Fe cars were burned. Four cars were laden with hay, one box car contained coal two tank cars contained crude oil. The Southern Pa cific lost no cars.
 Later the flames reached the four big tanks, which fortunately did not burst. The largest tank holds 400, ,000 gallons. but had only 125000 gallons in 1t to- day. The second tank holds 200 900 gal Ions of oil, but to-day it held only 40 900 gallons of gasoline. Had the flames reached the gasoline the loss to life and property would have been awful. The remaining two tanks. which hold 100 900 gallons each, are practically intact.
 At AIS o'clock the fire was fairly we'll under control. but some of the firemen will be left at work all night. No dam age was done to the cottages in the neighbOrhOOd.