Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1904 — DEATH IN OIL TANK. [ARTICLE]

DEATH IN OIL TANK.

das Fumes Overcome An Oil Worker ■t Asphaltum. XR. M. Grimes, an employe of the Indiana Asphaltum Co., was suffocated by gas arising from a a big crude oil tank at Asphaltum Wednesday morning. Grimes, it seems, was ordered to examine the tank and see if the lead pipes were frozen, but is said to have been told not to go inside the tank. He disregarded this injunction, however, and climbed up the ladder on the outside of the tank and desended the ladder within. He evidently was overcome by the gas in the tank before reaching the bottom and fell into the two feet of oil covering the bottom of the tank, for on his being missed and search being made a half hour later, his body was found floating in the oil. The gas arising from the tank was so strong that some difficulty was experienced in recovering the Grimes was about 38 or 39 yekrs of age and leave a wife and three children. An inquest was held by Coroner Wright Wednesday and the facts about as above related were brought out.