OIL DEPOT IN FLAMES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 112, 9 June 1909, Page 4

OIL DEPOT IN FLAMES.

ENORMOUS DAMAGE. , At Saint Ouen, on the 21at April, ■ 700,000 kilos of common oil and 200,000 kilos of petroleum went up in- a blaze, ' and filled the skv to the north-west of Paris with a dense cloud of smoke. the ■ material was stored in some sheds be]oi>"ing tu the Northern railway at Saint Ot'iui, and the entire depot was ' burned doivn. It is long since such a l)i.r lire was see in Paris or its' imincdi- 1 ate vicinitv, and the flames at one timo (states the London Telegraph's Paris correspondent) covered an area of twenty acres of ground. Gnu hundred vards'awav from tli<! iimils of the fire the limit was so intense that the tiremen could onlv approach with wet cloths over their faces, and the thermometer rose to 130deg. and wore. The fire was first detected bv'a workman, of the railway, who was' going to tlve sheds of the Wagons-Lits Company, adjoining; the oil depot. A epai'k from a locomotive is supposed to have set fire to a can of petrolL'uin in a shed. Anyway, as the workman was passing the shed a few minutes past ten o'clock lie noticed a blaze inside, lie went to the door and saw that a petroleum can was on lire. The alarm was at once given, and all the 'workmen round about hastened to tiie spot hut before they could do anything tils whole shed was ablaze, one can of petroleum exploding after another. TROOPS SEXT FOR. Soon ail 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 l)enis, Cliganeourt, and Montluartre 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 n-,1 electric power station, and a little farther removed are tile sheds of the Wagon-tits Company. The firemen had great difficulty ill preserving the«e buildings, but they succeeded lit last. . All the window-panes in the clcctric-power bouse broke from the' Ileal, from the very fir.st an immense crowd gathered near the fire, and the I police found It impossible to keep or- : dcr, It wiifi feared that at any moment i the petroleum stored In the basements i might cause an explosion and the loss of hundreds of lives. Troops were [ therefore sent for, and a detachment i of the regiment stationed at Saint Denis finally arrived, and helped the police fo keep the crowd at a safe dis- , fauce. A WORKMAN'S STORY, i The story told by one of the workI men who was on the .spot when the fire wils first noticed, shows llinv rapidly • (he flames extended. There were, he, • s'ays, about 300 men iu the yards at the time. He was inspecting a railway waggon, when lie heard someone call ! out "fire!" The flames were already breaking out of the shed when lie and ' a large number of oilier workmen ran , to try and save the other sheds. Nine hundred casks of petroleum had been unL loaded only three days before, anil the men started to roll tliem out of the way as fast as they could. But the [ smoke, which spread all over the yard, , nearly choked them, and tire flames , seemed to follow on their heels. All , they could do was' to run for their J lives. A workman who was on the roof of tire electric-power house was injured f In one of his shoulders by a fall, and , another man was nearly electrocuted by t catching hold of a live wire; but lie'if liter of them was fatally Injured. Tiro j damages are, of course, enormous, and [ cannot yet. be even approximately estir mated. Three great sheds, or* warehouses. have been entirely destroye-1, and only some parts of the walls and ; twisted iron girders Temain. About . three o'clock the fire ceased to make . furthei' progress, and the firemen were . able t" save a part of the oil and some naphtha in one of the basements.

SCATTERIffG A CBOWO. 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 eniah soon became ?o great that the foremost in the crowd were in danger of being pushed into the burning debris. M. Lepiiu'. who ivas at hand, ordered tlie firemen to train the tiose Jin the crowd, and this soon scattered the intruders. There was also great danger from the electric wires, ivhich were hanging loose in various' places, the supports and telegraph po,U having been'burnt down, and one workman who stepped on a wire received a severe shock and wa,' carried awav in an ambulance.