LIVING TORCHES

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 April 1933, Page 10

LIVING TORCHES

FIRE ON OIL TANKER

BIRKENHEAD. February 16

Three men are dead and six others injured, three of them seriously, as the result of a mysterious fire in the Swedish oil tanker Tasmanic in Lever Bros.’ dock at Bromborough, Cheshire, to-day. The fire occurred in one of the tanks on board the Tasmanic. Twentytwo men working in. No. 2 hold, cleaning out the tank with paraffin rags, were trapped. A man named Rolls, of Bebington, was the first to lose his life. He climbed up a ladder to the top of the hold with his clothing enveloped in flames. As he reached the top he fell backwards, a distance of 30 ft, and was killed.

At. the bottom of the hold men with blazing clothing were seen running about, and comrades who made heroic efforts to descend in a cargo basket to the aid of the trapped men were driven back by the flames. The basket had to be lowered un-attended. Several men escaped by means of the ladder, but others more seriously burned were placed one by one in the basket and lifted to safety. ” A dramatic story was told me by three of the men who distinguished themselves in the work of rescue. They were Joe Murphy, Weir, and Allen.

Murphy was the charge hand directing the operations of the gang. He said, “The first I knew was when I saw a man in flames from head to foot. It was Joe Griffiths (one of the dead men), and several of us made a rush towards him to put out the fire. As fast as the men with their paraffinsoaked clothes came in contact witli the burning man, their own garments were set on fire, and the bottom of the tank seemed to be full of burning men.

“Allen and Weir helped me to pull off th© burning clothing from Griffiths and the other men, although their own clothing was continually igniting, and we were wrenching blazing parts from each other all the time. Then I was overcome myself with smoke and heat. I did my best before the smoke got me.”