The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-31
Fires Starting on.L Lehigh Pier Early Sunday Morn < ing Believed to Have Set Off Barge Load of Nitro-C Cellulose- Thirteen Warehouses and S5
 Cars Are Destroyed Exploding Shells Rain ! on Ellis. and BedlOes Island

company's docks. The name of the towing company was not given. The statement in full follows:
 Thirteen brick storage warehouses out of "A, owned and operated by the National Storage Co.,. and leased to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Co.,, were destroyed. Several others of the brick. warehouses were badly dam- aged, and some minor damage was done to the Lehigh Valleys grain ele- vator. In addition. asifar as is known, S5 loaded cars were destroyed.
 According to the evidence obtain ed by officials of the railroad com pany, the fire started at 1905 o'clock yesterday morning in a barge belong ing to an independent towing com pany, which had been moored along side the railroad company's docks. ex- pressly against orders.
 I'M. T. Henley, night general yard master for the New York division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, was on the pier. when the fire started. He says the explosion, which occurred at 2:08 o'clock, was on the barge where, the fire started MT. Henley's first thought was to remove the load ed cars on the pier from the danger zone. He says that when he reached the end of the pier the barge was burning fiercely all over and the fire was beginning to communicate itself to soInesof the cars nearest the barge. ] Two long cuts of cars were success fully removed from the danger zone before the rapidly spreading fire en- g-ulfed the balance
 Loss on Sugar Estimated at s, 400, ,O00 '.Ass yet it has not been definitely Determined just what the money loss will be. Some 10000 tons of raw sugar, valued at $3,400,000, are known to have been lost, but it Is believed that the other contents of the warehouses destroyed will greatly increase this amount.
 There were no explosives stored in the warehouses, and in only two of the cars destroyed. These were loaded with shrapnel which would not have been a source of danger but for the ! outside fire. The other cars destroy ed were loaded principally with salt and borax. M
 s'The scene of the explosion and fire h in no way adjacent to the main passenger and freight terminals of the Lehigh Valley Railroad at either New York or Jersey City, and the mishap will not interfere in any way with the operation of business" Thomas Kane, a watchman for the railroad. was on his way back to the office of the National Storage Com pany when he saw flames shooting up | AL. tip of the peninsula. known as Black ] TOm. tss S.F N. The blaze appeared to him to be among cars standing on the north side of the pier, but he did not wait to in lvestigate that detail. He knew that barges loaded with explosives were moored all about and that in the yard lwere cars loaded with the same dan- gerous material He ran for a te1e- phone and turned in an alarm
 l Two fire engines and hook and ladder truck from the GreenviIle sec ton of Jersey City responded and the reserves from the Ocean Avenue Po- lice Station were ordered out, Lieut. I lClosterman in command. Then Kane called Fire Marshal John Julian of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
 | o'clock when he received a message from Kane saying that the --ex- tplosive dock," as Pier IT. on the north end of Black Tom is known, was afire Julian said that when he got to the scene of the fire explosives were cracking among the cars out at the lend of Black Tom.
 The three fire companies already or Ja
 fire from eating back into the yard
 where hundreds of freight cars were standing. but their efforts were of lit. tie avail. the water pressure haUns failed. At the same time freight yart
 employees and men who had swarmed
 up from the communities of barges ir
 the rear of the National Storage Co.,.
 warehouses were trying to haul ol1 the cars to safe distance.
 Men Move Munition Cars
 There was only one free track alons which the cars could be moved. an(
 the situation was further complicated
 by the fact that the dangerous cars Those with munitions aboard, wer.
 out at the end of the narrow yart
 leading to the niers. Julian said tha everybody knew the danger iron
 these cars. There were twelve a
 them, he said, but not all on the sam,
 track. Three drill engines were a
 work on the side tracks and the mail
 line that led back to safety.
 It was figured by Julian and other
 who. helped in the work that of 30,
 cars they got nearly 200 away iron the fire. This opened the way for tn, : twelve intuition cars. While the car
 were being hauled back the expIo sion of shells continued, growth,
 steadily in volume and intensity. Tn, firemen were unable to get water O,
 the fire. They were held back by in
 volleys of explosions.
 As near as could be estimated b,
 the men, who were working unde
 high pressure, seven or eight of th ' munition cars had been taken ava,
 when the barge moored on the nort]
 side of Pier IT blew up. The whoI
 sky Was suddenly lighted up.. A
 they looked into the face of it the,
 saw rows of light spreading upward
 Then a boom of terrific intensit
 smote their ears. They fell urtde
 the impact of it.
 Scene of Destruction They Saw, | All of this in an instant, witI1ou i previous warning. Then men work
 ing in the yard said they did no
 know what had happened. Thei
 Impressions of this first blast wer
 pieced together when they had re