TUNNEL FIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27081, 16 May 1949, Page 5

TUNNEL FIRE

EXPLOSION UNDER HUDSON RIVER VEHICLES DESTROYED NZPA—Copyright Rec. 8 p.m. NEW YORK, May 13. Forty-four persons were injured or overcome by fumes to-day when 85 lorries and cars were burned in the 50,000,000-dollar Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River. The fire started when 90 drums of poisonous carbon disulphide on a lorry exploded in a flash of blue flame. In a few seconds the famous tunnel through which 106,000 vehicles pass each day, was clogged with burning lorries, 14 of which were telescoped. Thirty firemen were overcome by fumes, and at least 14 other persons, several of them lorry drivers, were injured. i Fighting from both the New York and Jersey City ends of the tunnel, firemen worked for three hours before they brought the fire under control. Firemen who were overcome in the tunnel were given oxygen at the entrances, and returned to fight the fire. All wore gasmasks, which were not adequate against the heavy, poisonfilled smoke. “ Walkie-talkie ” radios were used to direct the fire-fighters. About 200 yards of the ceiling and walls of the tunnel fell to the roadway before the fire was brought under control, but water from the Hudson River did not break through. Fi reboats patrolled the water above the tunnel to watch for air bubbles, which would be the first indication of 3 The electric lighting and signalling system failed, leaving the tunnel in pitch darkness. The drivers and passengers of lorries and motor cars, who were not injured or overcome by fumes scrambled choking and- panicky from the tunnel. The intricate ventilating system was put out of action and fire also broke the communications cables and knocked out four major networks. Telegraph connections with a large section of the nation were also disrupted until alternative channels were switched in.