OIL FIELDS ABLAZE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19760, 10 April 1926, Page 11

OIL FIELDS ABLAZE

GREATEST FIRE IN INDUSTRY FLAMES 400 FEET HIGH. (Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) VANCOUVER, April 8. The fire continues at San Luis Obispo. It is described as the greatest oil fire in history. Terriffic explosions are occurring, and the flames are reaching 400 ft in the air. Eighty tanks, containing nearly 1,000,000 gallons of oil each, are now burning. An area of 25 miles in diameter is oil soaked. Farms, villages, and country houses are ruined. The fire attracted visitors from all- parts of California. _ The adjoining town of Aina has been abandoned because it is spoiled by oilsoaked cinders. Five tanker steamers are rushing to San Luis Obispo hoping to be able to pump some of the remaining millions of barrels from the underground pools, otherwise the fire will spread, and all these will explode or burn.—A. and N.Z. Cable. SECOND CONFLAGRATION. spreading lakes of fire. DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT OVER £3,000,000. SAN FRANCISCO, April 8. (Received April 9, at 9.30 p.m. ) A telegram from Los Angeles states that two 750-barrel reservoirs, in the area of the Union Oil Company, whose tanks at San Luis Obispo are still ablaze, were late on Thursday struck by lightning, causing a second gigantic conflagration. At San Luis Obispo the spreading lake of fire is now half a mile square. The less on the two fields is estimated at over 13,000,000 dollars. —Reuter.