Evening star., 1926-04-09


| In the lee OF the burning reservoirs
, there flowed waves OF flame as the
tanks boiled over. The remainder OF
the tank farm lies to the windward.
where it was protected by the SUI,
breeze and by dykes of sheet iron ana
, earth A new method Of flrehghting
| was given a trial when 20 artificial
wind machines were rushed to the
tank farm to keep the draft away
/, from the remainder of the storage.
The wind that held steady through
the night proved more satisfactory
however. than it's mechanical aids.
The protection of the remainder OF
the tank farm has been at the sacri-
flee of the area in the direction or
Brea. however. Ten cottages that for
merly housed employees of the tank
farm and several acres of orange and
! lemon orchards were destroyed early
today.
Company officials directing the bat
! tie against the blaze near Brea- sue
ceeded in having all of the smaller
| surface tanks. in which the more
volatile oil was stored, pumped out,
thus lessening the danger of the
spread of the fire.
Third Tank Explodes.
|, While the loss in the fire is esti-
| mated in excess of $3.000.000 about
oS per cent of this is said to be COW
cred by insurance.
Following the firing of the first
tank yesterday. the most spectacular
event in the progress of the blaze
came late last night when the third
tank was ignited as the other two
boiled over. The tank, of 100000
ba r1els capacity, exploded as it caught
fire.
Both fires were caused by lightning.
The brea refining tank and a num-
ber, of, large gasoline and ,distillate
tanks last night fell before flaming
wall of fire that erupted from reser-
voir No. 10, the most northern of
the three burning.
Jumping an earthen dyke, the over
flow rolled downward in north
westerly direction toward the refinery.
The gasoline and distillate tanks of
10, 900 barrels capacity each. exploded
in spectacular fashion. throwing their
blazing contents in all directions for
many yards.
Just prior to the overflow of the
reservoir a force of between 200 and
800 men was working between the
refining plant and reservoir No. 10,
building the dyke. Without warning
the reservoir erupted and it was only
by superhuman efforts that they out
distanced the rapidly moving wave of
flames.
So rapid was the advance of the
burning OIL that an over-curious dog,
which was up near the edge of the
reservoir when 1t overf1owed, was
unable to escape. The animal at
tempted to out-distance the flames
but was caught before it had Travelled
very far.
BODIES SOUGHT IN RIVER.
NEW ORLEANS, April R.-
Searchers today continued their task
Of searching for bodies of more than
35 sailors who are believed to have
lost their lives in two Mississippi
River disa sters in the New Orleans
district yesterday and last night. Au-
thorities believed it possible that the
death list will not be as large as had
been expected.
Several boats today centered their
activities near Pointea la Hache, La,
about 40 miles below New Orleans,
where the Dutch steamer Silvanus
last night collided with the Standard
Oil Co. 8 tanker, Thomas Ii. Wheeler.
Early today 80 members Of the crew
of the Silvanus were unaccounted for.
Nine of the Thomas II. Wheeler's
seamen were badly injured.
Five men were officially reported as
missing, another unaccounted for by
relatives and two critically hurt as a
result of FIVE oil explosions aboard the
Standard Oil tank steamer o. T. War
ing in dry dock here yesterday.
Those officially missing from the o. T.
Waring are Edward Balser, Joseph
Reiss, E. r. Bayhi, Manuel Auvine,
Perry Laurier. All of Theses were, resi-
dents of New Orleans. -
In addition, Slider Roth, a local
sailor, was reported missing by mem
bers of his family. F'orty-four other
members of the crew were hurt.