Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1921-06-17
FIRE AT
SALT LAKE CITY
UTAH OIL REFINING COMPANY
SCENE or FIRE WHICH ILLUIM-
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
to be dying, and fOrty-six were Injured,
four seriously, in the FIRE at the plant
Of The Utah OIL 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 $500, 900 and
100000.
The dead are Walter Rommey, Jr
10 years of age, son of Walter Rommey
of the FairInont apartments, and Mrs
Mary Ellen Clark Miner; and George
IA. Lar'bee, 10 years of age, son of Mr.
and Mrs. George J. 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 dlstillate envelop-
ed them, giving neither a 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
sAe two large tanks was a mass Of red
fame and black smoke and every eG-
fort was being conferred 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
VINO had been fighting the flames all
night, they found themselves in the
stump which surrounded the tank.
Hauling on heavy hose which car
Fied force of water sufficient to fell
a man at a distance of more than 100
feet, they erawled 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. Ronney, 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 srater In the stump extremely
hot.
Iafrabe, 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 it and by
the fragments of 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.
Larabee's body was not IN tie 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 clinglng to the
bones below the waistline, but the
upper part OF the corpse was entirely
free of lesh. It was In this same sec
ton that Mayor Neslen late yester-
day afternoon picked up charred
skin bone that physicians say Is that
Of human. and the finding of which
LEAFS 20 the theory that the death toll
will be more than two. The hone is
that Of human, according to Or. J.
]. Galligan, who said last night that
an examination showed that 1t had
only recently been filled 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 anothe-
2,O0OO 00-gallon containef a short dis
rance away, which had been partly
amptied. AS the fire reached this
tank 1t exploded and oil poured forth
20 be licked up by the flames and
entered with alarming rapldity.
- the fire subsidized Sunday after
noon check was made OF members
OF the city fire department and 1t
was said that all had been accounted
for. Officials OF the refining com
pany had partially completed a check
or their employees and It was stated
that none were known TO De missing.
The flames which spread from the
large tAnlr after the explosion Sunday
morning enghifed Q frame cottage, 10.
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
smouldering rafters and scattered
bricks from the foundation were lefl
to mark the Site The house was own.
ed by the company and rented By an
employees. The occupants moved 0ui
early in the day and the loss was IS
timated at $500.