The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-07-05

4
flowed over into the XIII von Kull and
| the bay.
The Standard Oil tugs dragged out fifty
vessels which were lying at the company's
| piers. Then the tugs formed Gordon
| little wag out from the docks and
| fought the flames from that side Great
booms of logs were thrown out in a
semi-circle to prevent the burning liquid
from flowing unrestrained over the water
and carrying destruction to shipping
down the bay.
Trenches are now being dug outside the
yards to prevent the burning oil from
reaching the property outside the works
| Already the fire has wiped out 500 acres
of the Standard Oil Company's plant. in
cludng the new eooperage works.
The Fire Department is being assisted
| by the men of the works in fighting the
flames. A number of people have been
burnt by the flying oil. but none very
seriously.
| No. Engine of the Bayonne Depart
ment was hemmed in by the flames on
the Standard Oil Docks, and to save its
destruction it had to be thrown over
| board
In each of the tanks there was 5000 gall
Ions of oil. and this, unconfined, spread
,s,.s-s. ...;1i.ooa o,-,,5 49, ,,orf5. Adioininr
the works was a tenement filled with
Hungarians and near by a frame building
used as a saloon. The tenants of these
buildings fed for their lives at the rush
| of the burning oil, and soon the flames
licked around the dry woodwork of the
| buildings. They We're all ablaze inside of
five minutes; the flames from them roared
up into the sky. The waves of burning
oil swept on, back from the works and
| down to the river. until it seemed that
| destruction would be spread to all the
| docks along the Kill Won Kull.
/ The big siren whistles at the refinery
and down at the tidewater were set to
work and soon were sending out loud
chrieks for aid. Tugboat men asleep in
their boats around the Battery and
South Brooklyn heard the call and saw
| the bank of fire in the west Banked
| fires were raked over and a small squa-
dron of tugs was dashing across the bay
| in few minutes. The men on the Stand
ard Oil tugs, who had ben instructed to
look for just such an emergency were.
already on teir way to the scene. Some
| of the company's tugs had had laid UP
for the night at Bayonne and were pump
| ing water on the blaze when the. others
arrived.
! BY this time, too, the men of the Bay
onne Fire Department were on hand. 1t
was easily seen at the beginning that
! their force could not cope with the
/ flames and word was sent out calling
help from Staten Island and from Jer-
sey City. The force of the explosion had
shaken all Bayonne and shattered the
L
4 ants of them ran to the street in their
| alarm, and when they learned what had
! happened and saw the oil-fed flames ris-
4 ing high into the sky they ran over to
where the fire was by hundreds.
Lying along the piers were about fifty
vessels, some loaded with oil, others wait
ing for their cargoes. All were good fuel
for the flames, but the activity of the tug
boatmen saved them. Lines were cast off
from the piers, hawsers were run to the
.schooners and barges, and soon the yes
sels were towed out into the stream well
to pour down toward them
1t seemed imminent that the burning oil
| would flow out to the water and in this
there was the greatest danger. AS pre-
/ caution a boom of logs was strung in
front of the fire swept section, ana from
/ behind it the tug boats fought against the
/ advance of the fire. Water had little eff
feet in stopping the flames In fact when
a stream was directed again wave of the
burning oil it only served to spread it out
and make it burn more fiercely. The
4 flames flowed around the smaller houses
! of the works. ran up their sides as they
would some dried tree and swept them
away while the firemen looked on and
could get no stream to them
From the inside, the firemen were fight
| ing hard, but ineffectively. Here. too,
water awaited but little. Strategy had to
be resorted to. Trenches were dug to
| divert the course of the flaming fluid and
| to check it if possible. The wind was
| blowing hard from the northeast and
famed the flames on their way back of
| the works. Right in the line of the fire
| on this side were the works of the Tide
| Water Oil Company the Kalbfeisch
Chemical Company, the Bergenost Chem
4 ical Company, the Bayonne Chemical
Company, the Port Johnson Coal Docks,
the Pacific Coast aBrge Company and
the crude oil piers 1t was thought for
q. time that none of these could be saved.