OIL DEPOT IN FLAMES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 140, 11 June 1909, Page 3

OIL DEPOT IN FLAMES.

ENORMOUS DAMAGE. At Saint Onen, on April 21, 700,000 kilos of common oil and 200,000 kilos of petroleum went up in a blaze and filled the sky to the north-west of- Paris with a dense cloud of smoke. The material was stored in some sheds belonging to the Northern Railway at Saint Oven, and the entire, depot was burned down. It is a long time since such a big fire was seen in Paris or its immediate vicinity, and the 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 130deg and more. The fire was first detected by a workman of the railway, who was going to . the sheds of. the Wagons-Lits,, Company, adjoining the oil depot.'

A spark from a locomotive is supposed 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 in the morning he noticed a blaze inside. He went to the door and saw that a petroleum can was on fire. Ths alarm was 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 other inflammable material. The fire brigades were early on the scene with the 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 i sheds of the Wagons-Lits Company. The firemen had great difficulty in preserving these buildings, but 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 sftored 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 crpwd at a safe distance. A WORKMAN'S STORY. The story toid by one of the workman who was on the spot when the fire was first noticed shows how rapidly the flames extended. There were, he says, about 300 men in the yards at the time. He was inspecting a railway waggon, when he heard someone call out "Fire!" The flames j were already breaking out of the shed when he and a large number of other workman ran to try and save. the other sheds. Nine hundred casks' 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 all 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 catching hold of a live wire, but neither of them was fatally 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 pushed into the burning debris. M. Lepine, who was at hand, ordered the firemen to train the hose on the crowd, and this soon scattered the intruder*. 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 shock; and was carried away in an ambulance.