GREAT OIL FIRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23542, 30 December 1939, Page 4

GREAT OIL FIRE

NEWCASTLE RESERVOIR MAN BLOWN INTO AIR FLAMES RAGE FOR HOURS , [from OUIt OWX correspondent] SYDNEY, Dec. 20 .Beginning with an explosion, in which an engineer was thrown higjj into tho air and killed, an oil reservoir fire on the Newcastle harbour front raged for four hours before it was subdued. The man killed was Mr. Maxwell>]?avl burne "Uric Nathan, aged 35, an employee of Commonwealth Oil Refineries, Limited. The explosion occurred withoufowarning, and from a cause so far unexplained, in a large circular power kerosene storage tank. Mr. Nathan had just climbed to the top of tho tank, when he was hurled into the air bv the explosion. (*ne onlooker estimated that Mr. Nathan was thrown to a height of ]ooft. -As he came 'down, his head struck the side railing of one of the adjacent tanks. His body was found lying near the He had suffered head, spinal, and internal injuries which had caused instant death. Tug Saves Tanker Another employee and a Customs official had been on the tank top only two minutes before the explosion making routine tests for the discharge of a. tanker, which was moored at tho tanks. The Customs official descended the ladder at the side of the tank, and began to walk to a car, a few yards away, when he heard the explosion and saw flames and black smoke rolling into the air from tho point which he had left. To remove the tanker from the danger zone was a task immediate moment. In answer to urgent sirens, a tug arrived and pulled the tanker into midstream. - The thickly-populated suburb of Wickham was endangered by tho fire. Firemen worked courageously to prevent heat and flames from the tank in which the explosion occurred causing a second explosion in an adjacent and even larger tank which contained benzol. There was also a risk that the kerosene tank would collapse and flood* the vicinity with blazing kerosene.' At one stage, the position looked so critical that the police advised all residents in houses near,the tanks to leave. Traffic through neighbouring streets had been forbidden previously. Work in Intense Heat Fire-fighting apparatus at the had been put out of action bv piosion. The Newcastle district firemen tried to play on the fire the foam compounds, which alone would be effec--1 tire against the burning'kerosene, /roin the top of the third tank, but a high wind blew the light compounds away from the blaze. Later, when the wind dropped a little, an extension ladder was brought into use. but a hose burst several times and delayed the fight. The men handling the foam materials were working in the midst of heat so intense that comrades had to keep water playing on them almost throughout. Huge masses of water were thrown by a hose against the side of the benzol tank and of the kerosene tank. 'Jhe water, which was useless against the flames, was>intended to keep the temperature of the benzol tank Below ex- . plosion point. OAs the hours passed, there was no diminution of the red flame and black smoke that poured from the tank top. When conditions became favourable for the of the foam apparatus, "the flame and.|< smoke became more subdued, and tho danger passed.