The sun., 1919-09-14
Big BALL OF FLAME
IS OIL FIRE MENACE


Conttnhed rom First Page.
Ing oil was thrown into a panic by the
bursting of two oil tanks within a mo
ment Of each other.
The tops of both tanks, which were
red hot, collapsed suddenly, and from
each tank a column of flame shot up that
seemed at least 500 feet high The ex-
plosions were accompanied by heavy de-
donations which shook all that region of
Greenpoint, and the streets became filled
with people running and shrieking The
next instant heat wave, lasting twenty
seconds and scdrchingly hot, swept over
Greenpoint from Newtown Creek TO the
East River.
Deputy Chief Martin, who had charge
of all the fire fighting last night, said
that II the wind held in the quarter
from which II was blowing then that the
fire ought to burn itself out by tonight
without damaging property outside the
refinery yard, but that II the wind
should haul to the southeast several
blocks of frame dwellings near the fire,
and in which men who are employed in
the yard live with their families, would
almost certainly take fire.
| The panic caused by the spouting
flames was brief but terrifying while Il
lasted For few minutes the streets
were filled with running men and
screaming women and, children. Store
keepers left their counters and raced
wildly toward the East River and in
several cases all the persons on trolley
cars, including motormen and conduc-
tors, sprang from the cars and dashed
| into buildings or toward the river.
In all thirteen persons were injured
at and about the fire. Seven of them
were firemen and five Of them persons
who were hurt in the crowds. The
thirteenth was Deputy Police Commits
sioner Wallis, who ventured too near
burning tank His face was seorched
slightly.
Cog Slips I'm Efficiency system.
During the years within which the
| Standard oil has been mining and re-
| flning oil 1t has established a system
at its yards which. for all ordinary
purposes and occasions, keeps It inde-
pendent of local fire organizations. The
| system has arranged that every man In
every yard has his place and station
| In the event Of fire. The yard organiza.
tions are drilled regularly and kept
equipped with the most modern ap-
paratus for FIRE fighting and It is rare
that Standard Oil fire consumes much
| property or lasts long. But in evey
] efficient machine a cog may slip or fall
out some time and yesterday IL was the
failure Of the steam. which gave the
! fire headway and sent good money glim-
| mering.
| In the Greenpoint yard as in other
| 8. o. yards they have the institution
known in the trade as fire foam, or
steam generated In a steam house In
which the fres ara never banked and
connected with every inflammable point
in the yard by a system of pipes which
-on the yard plans-discounts every
emergency. Tile steam plant at Green
/ point has been a going conceIn for
| thirty years. 1t has never fallen down
| at a fire before and has saved the
Standard organization all kinds and
conditions of money.
| But Yesterday II had no cnance at AL
/ The fire started, az most oil fires do. II
an oil tank and by combustion. which is
called spontaneous necause the tank al
ways ascends high in air and no one
| ever learns what set the spark that
| started it going. Not completely and
utterly and wholly and exnaustl'.%iy to
understand everything that happens in
one of Its yards or plants is repugnant
10 the very soul of S. o. So fires that
start by unknown means or agencies
sre charged against spoTtaueous CON.
bustion,. which is d sound ant salts
| lying lolysyllabic phrase
Steam House Scars skyward.
Yesterdays spontaneously combusted
oil tank therefore-to get to the point
went UP suddenly from the Green
point altitude record and took the
steam house with it. This had not been
foreseen. BY the time 1t was realized
l'another oil tank had followed the first
one, and the ordinary city FIRE alarm
was turned in. AS soon as 1t was real
J tzad af ENira In ManhaH-
tan the twenty or more acres of oil
refinery at Greenpoint were beginning
to burn and had no steam every en-
gine that could be spared from Brook
J lyn and Manhattan was forwarded to
the spot post haste.
They were needed. 1t is difficult to
say much of the various degrees OF
infiammability of various kinds and de-
grees of oil without having spent a
lifetime in the business. but as there
was every known kind Of oil in tanks
Fin the yard yesterday when the first
tank went skyward the question of kind
and degree becomes of academic i'm
portance only. The first tank to go up
contained naphtha and the second one
benzine. Various tanks after these two
had crude. lubricating. kerosene and
other oils In them anyway the sky was
soon thick with smoke and with pink,
green, yellow. magenta and violet
flame and the air in and about Green
point was acrid and the breathing bad.
The fact that no fireman lost his life
proves that the fireman who accepts less
than $4,000 a month, let alone $4,000 a
year, has faint appreciation OF his tai
ents and capacity. The way the firemen
fought, coaxed. cajoled, fiirted with and.
whenever it was humanity possible, over
came the various burning. tanks yes
terday without a wholesale destruction
OF firemen was a marvel which 1t has
taken forty years of training, tradition,
courage and unremitting devotion to
bring about. But they lost no men. There
were times when they were 80 Close
to roaring fame that any punishment
promised for the next world must seem
insignificant TO them.
Firemen Escape Blasting Menace.
Once a ball of fire forty feet in di-
| ameter and livid flame all through
! dropped from the top Of burning tank
and went bounding down a yard street
like a thing alive. II should have de-
stroyed all traces Of at least fifty fire.
men, but more than that many jumped
against buildings. hattened themselves
TO the bricks and held their mouths and
noses. and the thing went by without
doing any damage except to scorch one
mans neck