The sun., 1903-05-12
ACRES OF EAST RIVER ARIRE
rROM THE LEAKAGE OF A BURN
ING OIL BARGE.
pillar Of Flame and Smoke 500 Feet High
seen by 10000 People When Vessel
sank-(:allantry' OF Battalion Chief
Snow In Boarding the Blazing Hulk.

cloud OF purplish smoke hoated for
ho,rs Yesterday across Manhattan Island,
ris;nc ont Of the East River and vanishing
hevond the Jersey hills. 1t caused thou
sands Of persons to go to the banks Of
the East River. and there they beheld a
rarely picturesque spectacle.
In midriver opposite Forty-second street
Law barge ablaze from stem to stern.
All around it the water was covered with
small dancing flames. feet of flreboats
and tugs were circling about the danger
spo,. lashing the river with their streams
in order to beat out the flames. This went
on for nearly ak hours.
The burning barge was finally towed up
the narrow channel east OF Blackwell's
Island. the purpose being to sink it on the
s,nken Meadows. But it did not get 80 far.
OF the northern point of the island it went
10 pieces and sank, with last tremendous
o,l,burst of flame and smoke,
The vessel was a tank barge belonging
TO the Standard Oil Company and was
used for the transportation Of crude oil.
It had capacity of 100000 gallons. Yes
terday morning 1t was tied up In Peck's
Creek, at the foot OF Eleventh street, Long
Island City, where the Standard Oil Com
pany has a refinery. Oil was being pumped
into the barge. and by $50 o'clock about
$1,000 gallons were stored away in its tanks
Capt George Sharp Of 334 Oakland street,
Long Island City. and Mate John Quinn Of
3s Oakland street we're aboard. Quinn
was seen walking aft. A moment later
an explosion occurred which tore of a
nart of the deck and set the boat afire from
andships to stern.
Capt. Sharp was thrown from the deck
and landed on shore stunned but unin-
jured. Quinn was never seen again.
The private fire department Of the Stan
dard Oil Company and half dozen engines
under battalion chief were soon at work.
The flremen found plenty to do ashore,
where several small tar tanks and part
Of the pier had caught fire.
Out in the creek a number of tugs be-
longing to the Standard Oil Company were
struggling to get the burning barge away
from the shore. Two of them attached
pair OF steel hawsers to the prov OF the
boat which was finally towed out into the
stream. From that time until the barge
sank in Hallet's Cove, six hours later, those
two tugs did not let go their hold
All the tugs present turnedon their streams
Of water and began at the same time to toot
~.
Strong and David A, Body, the police boat
Patrol and another half dozen Standard
Oil tugs responded.
At first the burning craft drifted over
toward the Manhattan side and came 80 near
the Forty-second street ferry house that a
The reserves of he East Thirty-ffth street
and East Fffty-flrst street stations were
called out and several fire engines were
sent down to the foot Of East Thirty-eighth
street.
As it was seen that the two tugs that had
hawsers fast to the barge We're not strong
enough to keep 1t from drifting down the
river with the outgoing tide, an effort was
made to reinforce them Battalion Chief
Snow of Brooklyn was on board one Of the
tugs and he took command OF the operations.
Under his direction a dozen streams were
directed against the prov Of the barge,
where the hre had made least headway
The tug with Snow on board then backed
The chief crawled into the smoke and flames
Of the burning vessel. dragging hawser
after him. For a few moments he was
gone from the sight of those. watching his
perilous undertaking. When he reappeared
on the edge of the barge, it was seen that he
hawser around the bits. Once more he disap-
peared into the smoke, and another line
was made fast.
Then dozen arms reached out and
dragged him back on board the tug. which
Immediately put safe distance between
itself and the barge. Four tugs instead Of
two were thus enabled to direct the move
ments of the burning craft
Two hours later, when two OF the hawsers
broke off as II they had been cord instead
feat with equal success. A number Of
fremen wanted to take the risk In his place,
but he would not let them do 1t. A tongue
of fame shot up just behind the chiefs
back while he was on board the barge and
singcd his hair.
The principal danger after that arose
from the leaking of burning oil, which the
tide bore down stream.
The tugs and fireboats hung around the
barge, sometimes near enough to play their
PEELED to keep a distance of more than a
city block when the river itself seemed to
take fire.
The only way of extinguishing the foat-
ing fire was to beat it out, the streams OF
water from the tugs being used as lashes.
from the barge, which was then of Forty
second street. down to Forteth street.
1t was many yards wide and the oil burned
go fiercely that the volume of smoke rising
from the water was equal to the heavy
mass pouring out Of the barge itself. Sew
eral times tugs caught fire, but in no
case was much damage done.
About o'clock Chief Snow notified
Capt. Dean of the Patrol that he had de-
rided to tow the barge up to the Sunken
Meadows and let it go down there 1t
was a slow and risky journey through the
narrow channel east OF Blackwels Island |
The Long Island shore is lined with wooden
piers, and number of large factories are |
right at the edge Of the water.
AS the column Of fire and smoke was |
soen moving up the river there was gem
aral commotion ashore. Fire alarms were |
sounded and the East River Gas Company |
had every one OF its twelve hose streams
turned on toward the river
The tugs had got as far as the northern !
and Of Blackwell's Island. which is oppo-
site Eighty-ffth street, when the barge |
broke in two and sank.
As it went down. the water forced what |
Ill was left in it up to the surface. The |
column of fire that resulted was fully 400 |
'ect wide at the base. The flames did not |
cap straight upward, but coiled themselves |
around and around. There was more than |
'ne hundred feet OF clear fire and then
A wall Of smoke not less than 400 feet in
height.
Manhattan was blotted out to persons
viewing the spectacle from the Long Island
ode Blackwell's Island seemed to be on
IRE from end to end. The heat was almost
inbearable close under the Long Island |
'hore and many hundred feet away from
he fire
The tugs had let go their hawsers the
moment the barge sank. They had barely
line to steam to a safe distance before the
asst outburst of flame occurred When the
ire was fercest and most widely spread