The sun., 1919-09-14
BALLS SOF FLAME
MENACE AS BIG
TANKS EXPLODE
Steam Foam Fails When
Greenpoint Plant of Stand
ard Becomes a Furnace.
NEwTOwN CREEK AFIRE
43 Engines and Trucks in
Hard Fight After Cogs Slip.
in Efficiency.

The most spectacular and dangerous
oil fire that has ragged in or near New
York city in twenty years began at
two o'clock in the afternoon in
Greenpoint yesterday and grew In
violence every hour. BY midnight
seventeen great oil tanks, each holding
from 10000 to 10000 barrels of oil, had
exploded and the surface Of Newtown
Creek in the vicinity of the fire was
covered with burning oil.
The fire happened in the Standard
Oil works and yard at Greenpoint
and made its great headway because a
steam plant which is maintained at
the yard for the purpose Of fighting
fire was put out Of commission by the
first tank which blew up. The fire
Standard Oil employees specially
drilled in fire fighting and by more
than 500 flremen who, with forty
three engines and trucks and five
f1reboats, were dispatched to the fire
from all quarters of Queens. Brooklyn
and Manhattan.
For twenty minutes last night panic
reigned in that part of Greenpoint
adjacent to the oil yards and the flames
at times shot so high that they were
visible as far as New Rochelle and
Montclair, N. j. An hour before mid
night special call was sent out from
Fire Headquarters summoning all fire.
men of duty to join those already en-
gagged in fighting the fire.
Hundred Tanks In Fires Path.
The fires spread from tank to tank
was caused by the fact that due to
a break in a pipe line which connects
all the tanks in the yard and which in
case Of fire is to be used to draw away
the tanks contents, became obstructed ir
some manner which is not yet under
stood. and made it impossible to empty
thirty OF the hundred tanks in the yard
1t is likely that all the filled tanks will
have to burn out before the fire can
be got under control, and the fire may
rage for another day or longer.
Hundreds of tons of coal which were
kept piled in the yard caught fire dur
Ing. the confiagration and with the burn,
ing oil contributed to a condition oi
heat which made dwellings within three
blocks of the fire uninhabitable last
night Whether or not the fire will
spread to dwellings and other buildings
near the oil yard depends wholly or
whether the wind hauls from the quar-
ter in which it blew last night.
Years ago, in 1886, a fire In the same
yard spread out over Newtown Creel
and destroyed a number of water sid,
factories, piers and ships. But sinc'
that time most of the factories bull
struction, and such fires as started along
the water side last night were handled
without difficulty by fire boats.
Burning OIL Menaces Fireboats.
The burning oil floating down the
Newtown Creek seriously menaced for
time the freboats Abram Hewitt
and New Yorker. The two vessels
turned their streams upon the flaming
surface of the water and succeeded in
keeping the flames at a distance. The
oil drifted slowly down the creek after
setting fire to the Greenpoint Avenue
Bridge Nearly a mile below, the
Meeker Avenue Bridge also was SET
ablaze. This, too, was put out.
On the Queens side of the little water
way three buildings caught fire, first the
four story brick building Of the Ameri-
can Candle Company and later the fac
tories of the Columbia Distilling and
Van Derstein Fat companies. Firemer
speedily succeeded in getting the blaze
here under control. The plant OF the
Industrial Alcohol works on Greenpoint
avenue, next to the oil plant, alsc
caught fire.
About midnight a report that two fire
men were missing from the fireboat New
Yorker spread among the other fir,
fighters. Later II was stated that It wai
not thought the two men had beer
killed They had simply got lost ir
the shuttle incident to working the fire
men in shifts. It was declared
Six nurses from st. GATHERINGS Hos
pital. including two nuns and six nurse,
from Greenpolnt Hospital, arrived about
IL o'clock to aid the ambulance surgeon.
In first aid treatment Borough In.
spector Murphy at first refused to lie
them into the danger zone, but finally
yielded TO their pleas
All that can be done to fight the fir,
is to keep tanks which have not ye
caught fire covered by streams of water
Often last night fremen remained a
this duty until the tanks on which they
were playing hose exploded and then, al
the tanks blew up. flung themselves fac,
downward In mud and oily water, bury
ing their faces, where they lay until tn,
ftrst fumes or the explosion nad biowi
by. Three stables, n garage. an admin
iatrative or Office building and the build
Ing which contained the steam plan
we're destroyed.
Bursting Tanks Cause Panic.
Although no one was injured seriousl,
at the fire there was a time Just afte
o'clock last night whsn the neighbo
hood within a dozen blocks OF the burn
Continued on Fifteenth Page.