The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1921-06-24
s600,000 FIRE AT
SALT LAKE CITY
UTAH OIL REFINING COMPANY
SCENE OF FIRE WHICH iLI.UlM-
MATES HEAVENS FOR MILES
Lightning Strikes Tank Causing Severe
Property Loss and Scatters Death
In Heroic Twenty-Five Hour
Battle With Flames

Salt Lake-Two dead. two are said
10 be dying. and forty-six We're injured.
four seriously, i'm the fire at the plant
of the Utah Oh Refining company in
the northwest section of the city which
started at o'clock Saturday night and
which was not placed under control
until Sunday afternoon. Damage TO
the plant of the company is estimated
by its officials at between 100000 and
100000.
The dead are Walter Rommey, Jr.,
10 years of age, son of Walter Rommey
of the Fairmont apartments, and Mrs.
Mary Ellen Clark Miner; and George
IL. Larrabee 10 years old, son of Mr..
and Mrs George ]. Larrabee, 149 West
Seventh South street. Both men met
death when a sheet of flame which
preceded an explosion of the contents
of tank of gasoline distillate envelop-
ed them, giving neither chance to
escape.
Rommey and Larrabee met their
death while they were working be-
tween the two largest tanks on the COM
pany property. The southernmost of
the two large tanks was a mass of red
flame and black smoke and every eff
fort was being centered upon throwing
streams of water on the large tank
to the north, which was, at the time
of the explosion, nearly emptied OF Its
contents. With at least twenty others
VITO had been fighting the flames all
night, they found themselves in the
stump which surrounded the tank.
Hauling on a heavy hose which car
ried a force of water sufficient to fell
a man at a distance of more than 100
feet, they crawled down into the stump
and began to play streams OF water
upon the threatened tank. Both were
working in opposite sections of the
stump. intent upon subdueing the
flames and preventing their spread.
Then came the flash of the explo-
sion. Romney, according to others who
had been working by his side, was
engulfed in flames. He had no chance
to escape and fell back into the stump,
already filed by water. When his
body was found Sunday, there was
every indication that he had met
death by scalding and drowning. as
the water in the stump was extremely
hot.
Larrabee, working in the same stump
northwesterly from Romney, appar-
emily felt the full force of the sheet
of flame which preceded the explo-
sion. Only his skeleton was recover
ed and Identification by his father
was established only by bits of cloth
ing that had been taken from the
body by those who rescued 1t and by
the fragments of a cap his father rec
ognized. At the morgue the father al
so was able to make partial identifi-
cation because of he size of the
charred remains.
Larrabees body was not in the large
stump when found but just west Of
the dixie which makes the stump. That
he was in water to his waist at the
time of the explosion is plainly inli-
Gated. Flesh was clinging to the
bones below the waistline, but the
upper part of the corpse was entirely
free of flesh. 1t was in this same sec
ton that Mayor Neslen late Sun
day afternoon picked up a chared
skin bone that physicians say is that
of human, and the finding of which
loads 20 the theory that the death toll
will be more than two. The bone Is
that of a human, according to DR.. ].
J. Galligan, who said last night that
an examination showed that 1t had
only recently been filed with blood.
The fire burned fercely for TWEEN
ty-two hours. During Saturday night
firemen succeeded In combining the
flames to the wooden-top tank, which
had been struck by lightning. How
ever, the flames spread to another
2, 600, 0O0-gallon container short dis
lance away, which had been partly
amptied. AS the fire reached this
tank it exploded and oil poured forth
to be licked up by the flames and
scattered with alarming rapidity.
The flames which spread from the
large tank after the explosion Sunday
morning engulfed a frame cottage, To-
Gated east of the plant and facing
North Third West street. In less than
an hour the small structure had burn
ed down completely and only few
rafters and scattered
bricks from the foundation were left |
to mark the site. The house was own
ed by the company and rented by an
employee. The occupants moved out |
early in the day and the loss was es-
timated at $500.