The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1920-07-20
TWO HUNDRED FAMILIES
HOMELESS, RESULT OF
OIL TANK EXPLOSIONS


United States Asphalt Refining Conn
pany Plant Destroyed After Being
Struck BY Lightning-L0sses Far
In Excess OF 81 200, 0OO-trenzled
People Driven From Homes And
Sole Loss OF Life Feared. Thir-
,ty Dwellings Fail Prey To The
FLAMES. Firemen Unable To Stay
The Destruction Wrought by
Thousands OF Gallons OF OIL
Catching Fire. Which Ran In
Streams To The Residential Sec
tions And Soon Had Them In Ruins
People without Food And Forced
To Spend Night On The Roads.
Between 80 and 40 homes were
rendered inhabitable by the fire at
Wagner's Point Most of these are
on Third avenue, between South and
Main streets.
Property loss alone Will exceed ST.
900, 900.
Whether any fives have been lost
is not known. Scores of people are
known to have leaped into Curtis
Bay when a tank of blazing oil col
lapsed. A panic was caused by a
cry of Run for your life" set up
by excited spectators.
Scores of persons received minor
, burns when a spray of oil was emit
ted from one of the tanks.
Many families were hungry and eX-
hausted after a day of anxiety and
frantic efforts to save their effects.
The fire occurred in the heart of
the oil section, and it is considered
remarkable that adjacent plants
were not destroyed
Two hundred or more families
are homeless part of the residential
section of Wagner's Point, on Cur
It's Bay. is wiped out, and the entire
plant of the U. S. Asphalt Refining
| Company has been destroyed as the
result of a lightning bolt which
struck and fired a tank of oil on the
| company's property at noon yester-
! day.
Thirty-two dwellings, on both
sides of Third avenue, from South
street to Main street were in flames
and doomed. dozen homes on
| Fourth avenue, between Main and
| South streets were catching fire at
| intervals up until 1870 o'clock this
| morning. while their occupants,
driven to the roads and fields, spent
| the night on improved beds in motor
| trucks wagons and in the open fields.
Scores of these people found it sim
possible to get food. Most of them
| are panic-stricken, and groups of
children are crying for food. The
acute cases are being cared for in
| st. Albert's. Catholic Church under
Ethe ministrations of REV. Father
Nagengast, the pastor
Fire chiefs early this morning for
the first time since the beginning of
the fire, managed to get an adequate
supply of water by forming a relay
of engines and drawing water from
| the plant of the United States Indus
| trial Chemical Company nearby.
| They predicted that the entire square
| bounded by Main and South streets,
Third and Fourth avenues, would be
burned if there was any change in
the direction of the wind. A slight
breeze from the northwest. kept the
fire away from Main street.
/ Due to the great confusion at the
Point last night it was impossible to
, establish whether there had been any
loss of life. Several scores of persons
are known to have plunged into the
| waters of Curtis Bay when one of
the blazing tanks collapsed and sent
| spray of flames which swept over
the entire community. Among those
who leaped for their lives were a
number of firemen who otherwise
would have been imprisoned by a
wall of flames and gas.
The fire. which started at noon yes
| terday was, until 10 o'clock last
night, more spectacular than destroy
ing, being confined mostly to three
vast containers. The central of
these known as No. 103, filed with
heavy crude oil, was heated to a