The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-05

damage is estimated at $20O,00( A. G. Oakes, a warehouseman, was badly burned about the body and face when he was trapped in the pump house of the plant. He was carried out by Jess Robinson, tank driver, who turned in the Amel9can District Tele-
 graph alarm. Oakes was rushed to St. Vincent's in wagon of the Texas Oil company where it is stated that ne
 will live He stated at the hospital
 that he had no idea how the fire start ed and could not tell exactly where it
 originated.
 STARTED IN PENTHOUSE According to several witnesses, the fire started in the pumphouse of the com
 pany. When seen by an Age-Herald re-
 porter, Robinson said: q had just gone
 into the building and turned in my days
 receipts and started back towards the
 pumproom when I saw a blaze of fire
 shoot out from the west side of the
 building. The blaze set fire to the cloth ing of Oakes. | picked up a shovel and
 started throwing sand on the blaze. As
 looked up from shoveling the sand, I saw
 Oakes had fallen to the floor. picked
 him up and ran for the street. He was placed in a wagon and sent to St. Vim cents
 'I have no idea what started the fire. It was started in a second and in less than five minutes the whole place was ablaze. I turned in the fire alarm and in short time the firemen were on the scene. One tank after another exploded and the oil ran into the creek and coursed down the stream in a blaze of fire"
 POURS INTO CREEK Fire departments l. 3, 5 and respond ed to the call and Chief Middleton, as
 sisted by Chief Walton, were on the scene within a few minutes after the alarm was turned in. They confined their efforts to keeping the blaze from spread ing. As the oil poured into the creek | ablaze, the current swept it down stream at a furious rate. The flames leaped high in the air and burned everything in their path.
 As the stream of fire swept down the creek it came in contact with the Twen- ty-fourth street bridge and burned it in two in a twinkling.
 The blaze from the bridge, aided by the stream of fire, set the rear end of the Birmingham Packing plant on fire. Ex- cellent work on the part of the firemen put the blaze out and kept it from de- stroying the plant. The total damage to the Birmingham Packing company will not exceed 5000. When the river of fire finally reached the Illinois Central leaving the main line of that road blocked
 ENTIRE CREEK ON FIRE Within 15 minutes after the first ex- plosion of an oil tank, the remainder of them were blown up by the heat of the flames and added to the raging creek of fire. The water in the creek, covered with burning oil, coursed rapidly down the stream and after a short time a hlaze of fire extending over a mile and a half was leapng into the air on both sides of the banks of Village creek. The water seemed to add to the fury of the burning oil as it flowed into the stream in great volumes. At intervals of two or three minutes one of the huge tanks would explode and send it's quota of fiery oil into the raging creek of what appeared to be birthstone. Instead of it's fury abating 1t grew fiercer with every assing second. The firemen and citizens were helpless to combat the wave of fury which roared and spluttered hundreds of feet into the air. In the meanwhile the firemen kept i a steady flow of water from several | hose on the rear of the Birmingham l Packing company. The wind shifted to l the southwest and helped the battling firemen in their fight to save the pack | ing plant. As the wind shifted to the south. the flame of fire licked every vestige of grass and weeds from the northern bank of the creek. Had the grass and weeds been dry it might have spread the fire to the dwellings and | burned down the whole town of North Blt mingham.
 l Thousands of people in machines and | on foot congregated about the flames and helped the firemen as much as pos sible It is estimated the creek ran | fire for fully 15 minutes before it spent
 its fury. The plant of the Texas Oil