THE GREAT 'OIL FIRES IN AMERICA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 191, 12 August 1880, Page 4

THE GREAT 'OIL FIRES IN AMERICA.

American papers give details of the destructive fires • -Which raged for over 10 days in the oil district of Bradford, Pennsylvania. It appears that they swept over an area of country about 30 miles in length and an average width of three miles, and when the advices left, 1 on the 19th of May,, the fires were still burning in various places. Rew City, ; Rixford, Oil Centre, Otter City, Morrisburg, and Middaughville, all important petroleum centres, have been entirely destroyed, leaving 15,000 persons homeless, consuming about 300,000 barrels of '■ oil, 700' oil "rigs," with their engines, boilers, and expensive machinery, and thousands of acres of valuable timber destroyed. Some marvellous escapes '.«■ are reported. During the fire in the vicinity of Rew City, J. Rath "burn, W. Dye, and J. Hutchison, attempted to save a house helonging to the last named. There was an 800-barrel tank of oil on one side of the house, a 600Barrel tank on the other, and derricks in every direction. The fire was in the woods 500 feefaway, but a strong wind was. blowing it towards the house. Erom a spring a short distance from the house the men collected several barrels of water, and were trying to keep the , fire in check. Suddenly the wind

changed, carried a tongue of flame against the 600-barrel tank, and almost instantly it was in flames. Then the ' other tank caught fire, and simultaneously several derricks were wrapped in flames. The men were surrounded by flames, aud nearly suffocated with the heat. There was no escape through the circle of lire. Hutchinson had ploughed his garden that day, and the only thing he and his companions could think of doing was to crawl to that fresh-tnrned plot of ground and lie with their faces against il. They buried themselves as well as they could with their hands beneath the cold moist, earth, and there they remained from 2 o'clock in the afternoon until eight o'clock in the evening. The fury of the fire was then spent, and Hutchinson and his companions were enabled to drag themselves away in search of assistance. Their faces were so badly burnt that they were blistered, ancl tbey were nearly blind. It was thought that Rathbane would lose his sight entirely. The men said they breathed with comparative ease with their faces in the dapap earth, but that about four o'clock the heat was so intense that they bade each other goodbye, thinking they could not survive tthe torture long. Hundreds of people are now living in the woods, awaiting the replacing of their burned dwellings, and several deaths have occurred amongst them from fright and overexertion.