CALIFORNIAN OIL FIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19761, 12 April 1926, Page 9

CALIFORNIAN OIL FIRE

FURTHER TANKS EXPLODE. LOSSES GREATLY INCREASED. (Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright.) VANCOUVER, April 9. At San Luis Obispo an area of three miles square is burning fiercely. The tire continues to be altogether beyond control, with the likelihood of 26 tanks exploding and the whole of the contents being destroyed. The losses will run into millions beyond the first estimates. The orange groves in the vicinity are Hooded with boiling liquid, and a veritable river of oil is flowing over the nearby highways, blocking the traffic. The Union Oil Company has issued a statement that its losses are fully covered by insurance. Evidently this announcement is made in an effort to stay the decline in the stocks on Wall street. - Brea, a town a short distance from San Luis Obispo, is now on fire, following the explosion of two of the Union Oil Company’s tanks. The explosions added £1,000,000 loss to the previous total.— Sydney Sun and Reuter Cables. BLAZE UNDER CONTROL. DAMAGE RUNS INTO MANY MILLIONS. SAN FRANCISCO, April 10. (Received April 11,• at 11.5 p.m.) The fires at the Union Oil Company’s wells were the most spectacular in American petroleum history. They were got under control on Saturday night after causing a loss approximately of 15,000,000 dollars.—Reuter.