DISASTROUS OIL EXPLOSION.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2106, 23 November 1880, Page 4

DISASTROUS OIL EXPLOSION.

The Russian papers published particulars of the explosion of 1000 tuns of kerosene oil at Tsartsin, on the river Volga, resulting in the loss of thirty lives. The oil was stored in a " popoffra," a floating reservoir of the circular -round boat description, and containing oil from Baku, awaiting shipment by railway to Central Russia. The explosion was caused by a ■ Tartar entering the reservoir with a naked light, which ignited the gas, and led to an explosion heard many miles around. In a moment a vast pillar of blazing oil rose towards the sky, and, in subsiding again, flowed 'flaming down the river on the surface of the water. •■ A barge, containing several hundred barrels of oil, rapidly caught fire and increased the conflagration. All the men on board were burnt alive. ■• Farther down the stream a wood barge was moored with fifteen men on board. Their only boat was tied to the bank of the rivor, and it was impossible for it to return in time to save them. As the vast sheet of S flame advanced towards them, they soreamed loudly for help, but it was impossible to send them assistance or for them to swim ashore. • After a few minutes" time the flames closed round them, and it is believed that all must have perished. Not far from the barge two rafts were destroyed. In. course of time the oil began to grow exhausted, and at length the flames died oat.'--Had the wind been blowing from the north, the oil wouli have been carried direct ■towards Tsartsin, and the town must have . "been- burnt to the ground. The exact loss is not yet known, but at least thirty persons xre believed to have perished. The price of i oil rose the next day at Tsartsin 100 per cent.