Evening star., 1941-08-19
1woscore Missing
As 5 Agencies Probe
S1,50O,0O0 Pier Fire
Known Dead Reaches
Seven; 55 Injured
Still in Hospitois
By the Associated Press.

ing up cargo and destroying tne
Cuba Mail Line ship Panuco and
numerous small craft, but an in
vestisator said the total death toll
of the sl,5O0,O0O fire may never be
known.
At least So persons were IN hos
pitals seriously injured as a board
of inquiry of the Omitted States
Marine Inspection and Navigation
Service opened a formal investiga-
ton of yesterdays tragedy.
The hulk of the panuco still
smouldered. holding nobody knew
how many victims.
Tabulation of Missing.
AS police Strove to account for
those definitely known to have been
aboard the Panuco, they succeeded
In boarding the stern in their grim
search. They issued the following
tabulation:
No. hold. men safe, missing;
No. hold, II men safe, missing;
No. 3 and No. holds, 18 missing:
No. 4 hold missing. Except for
No. 2 hold, these figures did not
include any of the Panuco's own
crew. but rather stevedores working
on the vessel at the pier.
LAS a matter of fact" said As
sistant District Attorney Edward A.
Of oil ,11l,
veStigation, "the actual number of
dead may never be known"
The Cuba Mail Line said that in
addition to one member of the crew
known to be dead, five other crew.
men were missing and the fate of
two others was in doubt. The
Panuco carried a crew of 35.
Although the fire took place on a
defense-vital waterfront. virtually
within sight Of the Brooklyn Navy
Yard and numerous lease-lend load
ing docks. the possibility of sabotage
was considered unlikely.
Sabotage Doubted.
Fire officials who responded to the
flve-alarm blaze that was witnessed
at midday by many thousands said
there was no immediate indication
that the fire was the work of sabo-
teurs.
From Washington, however, a
board named by Secretary of Com
merce Jones was sent today to par
ticlpate in an investigation started
by Brooklyn District Attorney Will
liam ODwyer, police and fire Of
f1cials and the F. B. I.
Members of the board are J. Frank
Staley of the Justice Department.
Capt. R. w. Dempwolf of the Coast
Guard and Capt. George Fried of
the Bureau of Marine Inspection.
Fire Department officials said that
four male bodies have been recovered
and that the body of a man was
seen on the deck of the Panuco as
she was towed down the East River
and grounded on the Red Hook flats,
listing to port and with great billows
of smoke and flame shooting from
her holds as fireboats dehed intense
heat to pour tons of water into her.
Flames Spread Quickly,
The blaze apparently started in
bale of hemp-possible from
carelessly discarded cigarette-and
spread with almost unbelievable
speed to other bales. down the full
875-foot length of the pier and onto
the Panuco and other small craft
TO the accompaniment of the
thunder of exploding drums of oil
So fast did the flames spread that
stevedores in their path were over
taken. Many, running before the
blaze. made the deck of the vessel
and then dived headlong into the
river to be rescued by police and
fireboats and volunteer civilians.
AS portions of the pier crumpled,
other workers were fished from the
water in the face of heat so intense
that the fire sprinkler system went
off in an Office building hundreds of
yards away.
DESTROYED by the fire was the
$500 600 vessel and all sorts of cargo,
ranging from hemp to cotton, and
including oil and chemicals, worth
an estimated 100000 to $1,000, 900
or more.
Fireman John Corcoran. a member
of the harbor squad for q years,
called it the worst water front fire
he ever had seen.
"ATl of a Sudden"
Stevedores indicated they knew
little as to how or where the fire
started
George Davies, 46, a turbine en-
eineering company employe, describ-
ing the fire as he lay on his hospital
cot, said:
Men were streaming out of every
hatch-longshoremen, sailors, ships
officers. I saw men leap between
the barges and the ships side and /
think some were crushed there.
Great chunks of flaming material
shot through the air like rockets"
When I heard the explosions in
the hold I figured the seams would
open up and jumped said Isaiah
Egnoris, 80, ships messman.
Burning Oil on Water.
AS l. was swimming AWAY, UuIH-
ing oil was spreading on the water
behind me. There were about a
dozen in the water with me when we
were picked up"
One witness, not officially identi-
fed. said longshoremen had been
stacking the bales of hemp from the
inner side of the pier toward the
ship when suddenly a tiny flame
shot up the side of a stacked bale.
Two men operating cranes-Albert
Trimarco and Luca j. Mauro-saw
the fame at the same moment and
rushed toward it with fire ex-
tinguiSherS.
The cranemen expressed the opin-
ion that the explosions came when
the fire reached a large quantity of
highly inflammable paint and lubri-
eating materials on the center of the
dock.
Germans Requisitioning