OIL DEPOT IN FLAMES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13928, 11 June 1909, Page 4

OIL DEPOT IN FLAMES.

ENORMOUS DAMAGE

At St. Oven, on April 21, 700,000 kilos, of common oil and 200,000 kilos of petroleum went up in a blaze, and filled the sky to the north-west of Paris with a dense cloud of smoke. Tho material was stored in some sheds belonging to the Northern Railway at St. Oven, and the entire depot was burned down. It is long since such a fire was seen in Paris or its immediate vicinity, and tho flames at one time (states the London Telegraph's Paris correspondent) covered an area of twenty acres of ground. On°. bu' Idred' yards away from the limits of the fire the heat was so intense that the firemen could only approach with wet cloths over their faces, and tho thermometer rose to 130deg. and more. The fire was first detected by a workman of the railway, who was gomfe to the sheds of the Wagons-Lits Company, adjoining the oil depot. A spark from a locomotive is supposed to havo set fire to a can of petroleum in n shod. Anyway, as the workman was passing the shed a few minutes past ton o'clock in the morning he noticed a blaze inside. He went to the door and saw that a petroleum can was on fire. The alarm was at once given, and all the workmen round hastened to the spot, b\it before they could lo anything the whole shed was ablaze, ( ne can of petroleum exploding after a icther.