Evening star., 1935-06-06
THREATENS
NAVY YARD POWER
Firemen Fight Fire in Huge
Coal Bins for Three
Hours.
Fire which may have been shoulder

Fire which may have been shoulder
ing for DAYS in the l0,o00-ton coal
bins Just under the roof Of the navy
yard power plant burst into flame
early this morning threatening for a
time 10 cripple the yards extensive
shops
A third Of the city's fire fighters
battled for three hours TO extinguish
the stubborn blaze, and then left a
small detachment on watch against
the possibility Of another outbreak.
II was the second fire in the power
plant bins within the past six months.
The previous blaze last Winter was
much less serious, however. than to-
days confiagration Both are thought
TO have started from spontaneous
combustion in the fine dust Of the 30
foot deep soft coal heaps.
No estimate Of the damage could be
obtained AT the navy yard this NOM
ing. but II was thought To run into
several thousands of dollars.
Three Alarms Sounded.
Three alarms at brief intervals
brought to the scene Il engine COM
panies. 4 trucks. the fire boat. both
water towers and both rescue squads.
Chief Engineer c. E. Schrom re-
sponded on the first alarm. which
sounded at 2:08 Other alarms were
al 2:25 and 242.
So dense and pungent was the
smoke and gas given of by the flaming
fuel. that ordinary filter gas masks
we're not sufficient protection. and
members of the rescue squads with
oxygen masks had TO be called on to
carry hose lines through the building
to the burning bins.
Meanwhile other firemen chopped
through the slate roof TO get at the
fire Water towers and hose mounted
on tall ladders were brought into play
and poured streams of water onto the
top of the large building.
Feared Gas Explosion.
Intermittently tongues of fame ate
their way through the roof, and be-
cause of the treacherous nature Of the
DidLC hClt uIldO OlC W DC SuI
at what point the flames would show
next.
A number OF windows along the
top of the building mInimized the
danger of coal gas explosions. al
though firemen proceeded carefully
The plant furnishes power for the
navy yards many shops and gun
foundries. as well as all the current
for lighting purposes. and had the fire
harmed the huge boilers most activi-
ties would have been brought to a
StandStill. The power plant consists
of two connected brick buildings. one
housing the generators and the other
the boilers. 1t was in this latter
structure, which is Surmounted by four
monster smokestacks. that the coal
bins are located. They lie just under
the roof along either side of a con-
veyer which dumps the fuel into
them. The coal feeds automatically
into the 10 monster furnaces. But
three boilers were in operation last
night, attended by small crew.
1o,5o0 Tons in Bins.
Ndpl. .. y. IIONdH. captain Vi Ile
yard. said six weeks supply of coal
usually is kept on hand Since ap-
proximately $50 tons are burned daily,
this amounts to some l0.50O tons.
The fire was discovered by one of
the shift on duty in the plant Capt
Rowan was notified and called the
District Fire Department. When the
city firemen arrived the navy yard
fire force had hose lines up and was
ready to go into action.
Enormous quantities of water we're
used in fighting the blaze. even the
fireboat being called into service to
pump from the river. Automatic
sprinklers in the building augmented
the efforts of the firemen.
First Lieut.. Russell Lloyd. United
States Marine Corps, yard fire mar
Shal, was conducting an investigation
into the fire today.