New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-19
Asphalt Blaze
Sweeps Bay; 50
Ships Menaced
Factories and Piers Worth
Millions Also Endangered
by Explosion and Fire
i'll Warner-Quinlan Plant
Damage Is Sl,O0O,OO0
Flames Finally Controlled
After All Staten Island
Apparatus Is Mobilized

LINDEN, N. j., July 1S.-Fire which
started at o'clock this afternoon when
two tanks filled whit crude asphalt oil
blew up in rapid succession on the
plant of the Warner Quinlan Asphalt
Company here was under control
shortly before midnight.
The burning oil had spread earlier
in The night over the waters of Staten
Island Sound and close to the shore of
Staten Island. Millions of dollars
worth of proper, represented by
manufacturing plants and piers were
for some time in grave danger of being
reached by the burning oil, as were
fifty vessels of the United States Ship
ping Board.
The damage so far is estimated at
S1,000,000 and is confined to the plant
OF the asphalt company. No one was
seriously injured, although many per-
sens were made sick by the fumes
from the fire. Every one for miles
around was modified to keep the fire
from spreading.
Apparatus Ineffective
Fire apparatus from Elizabeth, Lin
den, Railway and Perth Amboy stood
around for hours unable, because of
the intense heat, to more than play
water Intellectually on the blaze from
a distance Of several hundred feet.
Two fire tugs from the Standard Oil
Company's plant at Bayway were sent
to help and three truckloads of 8
chemical extinguisher were utilized
against the flames.
The Shipping Board vessels, lying at
anchor off Arlington with skeleton
crews, had got Up steam preparatory to
moving should The burning oil approach
too near them.
Smoke from the fire spread over the
country for eight miles in the direction
of Elizabeth. Az 930 fremen had pre-
vented the flames from spreading to
other plants in the vicinity, although
thew had been unable to keep the burn
ir.g oil out of the Sound.
1t was not until 1880, however. that
the heat abated sufficiently to perm t
the firemen TO get close enough to the
fire to attack it successfully.
Five Tanks Explode
The first tank exploded about 2
o'clock. The second exploded shortly
after it, Two more tanks caught fire
shout 10 o'clock. There were fifteen
tanks on the plant Five of them were
burned. Seven stills were also burned.
There were twelve stills all told. The
tanks contained from 5000 to 10000
barrels of crude asphalt oil each, and
the stills held 5000 barrels each,
In addition to the five tanks and the
seven stills, the administration and
Workshop building, a two-story brick
structure, was wrecked by the eXplo-
sion and the fire that followed. All the
BRIDGES over the creeks on the plant
were destroyed.
The tanks were from forty to ninety
feet high. They were on the south end
of the field and the stills were on the
north end. SO great was the heat gen.
Grated that the Home Defense OF
1indan inCI was called into action to keep
awav hundreds of persons who came
on foot and by motor from the sur
rounding districts.
The Possibilities of the fire were
enormous. The Grasselli Chemical
Company's plant is near the burning
t.nks Also near by is the $3,000,000
refinery which Is being constructed
bv the Sinclair Consolidated Oll Re
fning Company.
The danger to the Shipping Board
uessels was announced late to- night to
have been mitigated by the work Of
Two freboats, which had checked the
course Of the oil on the water.
The fire, while under control, is still
burning, and will continue, 1t is be-
lieved, until it burns Itself out.