New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-04
BIG BLAZE LIGHTS
UP SOUTH BROOKLYN
Thousands Watch Burning of
Asphalt Plant at GoWanus
Canal.
POWER HOUSE THREATENED
Coney Island Cars Held Up for
Three Hours as Fireboats
and Many Engines Fight
to Prevent Spread.

| In a spectacular fire last night at
| Gowanus Canal and 9th street, Brook
| Ign, the plant of the Crawford Asphalt
Company, with all its costly machinery,
two barges, and five hundred feet of
pier, along the canal was destroyed
and the large brick power house of the
! Coney Island & Brooklyn Railroad Com
pany, on the opposite side of the
Gowanus, was threatened, with part of
an immense stock of oil and tar. One
fireman was injured. Great crowds
gathered along the canal and in all
parts Of South Brooklyn, and trolley
cars were stalled all along Smith street.
The damage was placed at $4,000.
The fire which was discovered at $50
o'clock by William Tracey. the night
Waterman. was caused, he thought, by
the explosion of a gas engine in the
asphalt making plant, two story frame
building extending 200 feet in 9th street
and $50 feet along the southeast side OF
the canal. Behind this plant were three
story storage warehouse and an i'm
mense crane. The warehouse, which was
separated from the manufacturing shed,
was the second building to go up in
flame The crane tottered as the fire
attacked its foundations, but was
propped up, and save for three tall iron
chimneys is all that remains of the
plant.
The fire ran from the 9th street build
ing to the office building. No. % 9th
street, few feet east of it in the same
street. In the rear of the office build
ing vast quantities of crude and refined
oil were stored in steel tanks and in
barrels One of these tanks had a
capacity of one thousand gallons and
two smaller ones contained two hundred
gallons There was also tank of gas
olene, and upon these the f1reboats
David A Body, Seth Low and New
Yorker kept their streams playing stead
iIy after they had got the fire in the two
barges lying in the canal at the side of
the manufacturing plant under control.
The targes were loaded with crushed
stone, cement and sand, and were towed
into the canal only yesterday. Sheds
were built on their decks, and the flames
from the light wooden material shoot
ing up with those from the plant ITSELF
lit I'D all the lower part of Brooklyn.
On the drawbridge across the canal at
Hamilton avenue thousands stood. while
the roofs of the houses for miles around
the place were crowded.
The crowds in the street were aug
mented by passengers from the Smith
street line of the Coney Island & Brook
Ivn Railroad. This line was unable to
send its cars on the way to Coney Isl
and any further than 9th and Smith
streets, and had to stop running for
nearly three hours.
The fremen had plenty of ways to
fight the flames, both on land and water.
The fireboats were able, to get right
under the plant, and from the 9th street
drawbridge and in the spaces on each
side of the buildings it was easy to nam
die the streams effectively.
Lieutenant Dorey, of Engine ITO, was
struck by falling girder. Dr. Keeper
took him to the Long Island college
HOSPITAL. where he was said to have sur
fered internal injuries