OIL DEPOT IN FLAMES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9465, 7 June 1909, Page 3

OIL DEPOT IN FLAMES.

ENORMOUS DAMAGE,

At Saint Ouen, on the 21st April, 700,000 kilos of common oil and kilos of petroleum went np m a blaze, and filled the sky to the northwest of Paris with a dense cloud of smoke. The material was stored in some sheds belonging to ihe Northern Railway at Saint Oi-en, and the entire depot was burned down. It is long since such a big tire was seen in Paris or its immediate vicinity, and tht flames..at one time, states the London Telegraph’s Paris correspondent, covered an area of twenty acres of ground. One hundred yards away from the limits of the fire the heat was so intense that the firemen could only approach with wet cloths over their faces, and the thermometer rose to I3odeg. and more. The fire was first detected by a workman of the railway, who was going to the sheds of the Wagon-LitsTOompany, adjoining the oil depot. A spark from a locomotive is suppposed to have set fire to a can of petroleum in a shed. Anyway, as the workman was passing the shed a few minutes past ten o’clock this morning he noticed ablaze inside. He went to the door and saw that a petroleum can", was on fire. The alarm wasT at once given, and all the workmen round about hastened to the spot, but before they could -do anything the whole shed was ablaze, one can of petroleum exploding after another. TROOPS SENT FOR. Soon all the sheds scattered over the vast area, and forming the oil depot, were likewise on fire, together with a lot of tar and other inflammable material. The fire brigades of Saint Ouen, Saint Denis, Olignanoonrt, and Montmartre were early on the scene with their engines, and the big pumps of the Northern Railway supplied any quantity of water, but it was, of course, impossible to do more than circumscribe the ravages of the fire. Close to the depot is an electric power station, and a little farther removed are the sheds of the Wagon-Lits Company. The firemen bad great difficulty in preserving these buildings, they succeeded at last. All the window panes In the electric power house broke from the heat. From the very first an immense crowd gathered near the fire, and the police found it impossible to keep order. It was feared that at any moment *the petroleum stored in the basements might cause an explosion and the loss of hundreds of lives. Troops were therefore sent for, and a detachment of the regiment stationed at Saint Denis finally arrived, and helped the police to keep the crowd at a safe distance. A WORKMAN’S STORY.

The story told by one of the workmen who was on the spot when the fire was first noticed, - shows how rapidly the"flames extended. There were, he says, abont 800 men in the yards at the time. He was inspecting a railway wagon, when he beard some one call ont “Fire!” The flames were already breaking out of the shed when he and a large number of other workmen ran to try and save the other sheds. Nine hundred oases of petroleum had been unloaded only three days before, and the men started to roll them out of the way as fast as they could. But the smoke Which spread ail over the yard nearly choked them, and the flames seemed to follow on their heels. All they could do was to run for their lives. A workman who was on the roof of the electric-power building was injured in one of his shoulders by a fall, another man was nearly electrocuted by catuhing hold of a live wire; but neither of them was ifatally injured. The damages are of course, enormous, and cannot yet be even approximately estimated. Three great sheds, /or warehouses, have been entirely destroyed, and only some parts of the walls and twisted iron girders remain. About three o'clock the fire ceased to make further progress, and the firemen were able to save a part of the oil and some naphtha in one of the basements. SCATTERING A CROWD. When the soldiers retired from guard at a certain point about two o’clock in the afternoon a crowd of some eight or nine hundred persons approached, and the crush soon became so great that the foremost in the crowd were in danger of being noshed into the burning debris. M. Lepine, who was at hand, ordered he firemen to train the hose on ,tbe crowd, and this soon scattered the intruders. There was also great danger from the electric wires, which were hanging loose in various places, the supports and telegraph posts having been burnt down, and one workman who stepped on a wire received a severe shook and was carried away iu an ambulance.