Great Petrol Storage Tank Conflagration

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 210, 5 September 1944, Page 5

Great Petrol Storage Tank Conflagration

LONDON, Sept. 3. A story lias just "been released of one of the most spectacular and terrifying fires ever known in Britain. The Home Office states that the fire started when an aviation petrol storage tank buried in a hillside was fractured during an enemy air raid. A great wave of burning petrol shot across half a mile of countryside. The torrent, flowing at about 1000 feet a minute, then came down the hillside into a valley, found its way into a stream and threatened a nearby village, from which the inhabitants and their possessions were evacuated. Members of the Natio-al Fire Service, facing deadlv risks, fought the blaze for 21 hours. They saved the village by damming the stream with the aid of a bulldozer snd then attacked th* river of burning petrol with foam. Petrol seeping through the surface of the hillside formed pockets of oil, sometimes considerable distances away. The heat caused the pockets of oil to explode, sending whirlwinds of flame, capped by black smoke 60 or 70 feet into the air. The fire three times appeared to be put out but the heat caused the petrol in the sodden ground to vapourise resulting in a big “flashback” and setting the whole prea ablaze again. The “flashbacks” had great destructive power, destroying anything in their path.