The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-05-03
OIL REFINERY
BURNED YESTERDAY
A Fire Fighting Game Was a Losing
One.

day morning, lightning struck large
crude oil storage tank and a gasoline
storage tank on the grounds of the
Vinita Producing & Refining company
two miles west of town, and immediate
rolling, climbing, roaring blazes were
the result. Every thing that force
of hundred workmen could do was a
losing game-there was no stopping
the little play party of destruction.
Twenty-nine thousand barrels of
crude oil-that is what the big tank
contained-made fire that was un-
querable. The capacity of the gaso-
line tank was five hundred barrels;
the tank, however, was not full
The fire about the crude oil tank,
which tank held position near the
eastern extremity of the refinery
grounds, WIS., the fire that did the final
and greatest damage to the plant. In
an attempt to free the oil through a
ditch that was rapidly dug. leading to
Cabin creek east, dynamite was used
for the purpose of puncturing a hole
in the tank, through which hole the
oil might escape into the ditch. In
stead of making a hole the size de-
sired, the explosion made large rent
up the side of the tank, and around
the bottom of the tank, making an
opening through which the oil poured
faster than the ditch could carry it
off. The force of the oil was so strong
that in a very few minutes almost the
entire grounds were covered with
burning OIL almost completely sur
rounding every other tank of the plant.
What a few minutes before had been
a blaze that was doing no immediate
damage except to the one burning
tank was now blaze covering twenty
acres, more or less, That was dis
aster unforeseen. 1t was necessary to
puncture the tank for the immediate
sofety of the remaining part of the
plaht, but fate would have it that a
rent be made instead of a hole of the
necessary size.
Almost the very minute that the oil
began pouring through the opening in
the tank, the force of workmen began
throwing up dixie to keep the oil
from spreading, but the flames and
flow of oil were too fast for them and
the workmen submitted to the result.
All afternoon then and the greater
part of last night the fire ragged at its
highest, and dollar after dollar, sum-
ing up hundreds of them, thousands
Of them, tens Of thousands, curled up
in seething black smoke and drifted
to the west. The broad expanse of
the western sky was filled with the
grumbling-like black substance-the
lost smoke of wasted oil, the refined
products of which were to be sent as
far west as Spokane, Wash. and as
far east as Pittsburg, Penn.
The magnitude of the Vinita Pro-
ducing & Refining company was not
even partially realized by Vinita citi-
zens. They were furnishing the Frisco
railroad with from twelve to fifteen
cars of fuel oil each week. They were
shipping from Vinita each month from
two hundred and fifty to three hum
dred cars of refined and raw products.
Evary car that went out of Vinita car
ried Vinita's name to the west, east,
north and south. The oil company's
property a few days before the fire
showed a valuation of two hundred
thousand dollars or more, and they
were rapidly adding to their plant. The
company recently purchased thirty
acres adjoining their former holdings
and were at work building it up with
storage tanks. They were preparing
to handle business unsurpassed by any
other refinery in the state, for it seem
ed that such business was bound to
come to them. The refinery had been
in regular operation but short time
and exceptionally good contracts were
encouraging them in the immediate
enlargement of the plant.
Just what the loss to the company
will finally prove to be has not yet
been accurately estimated but it will
finally sum up between $4,000 and
500. 900. The insurance policies car
ried 80 per cent clause. The material
loss of the refinery people was small
when compared with the loss of time
and the probable loss of business.
1t is understood that the immediate
work of rebuilding the plant will be
started.