Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1901 — MANY DIE IN BLAZING OIL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MANY DIE IN BLAZING OIL

Russians Overtaken by Fire at Meal Time. MANY UNABLE TO ESCAPE. Thirty Ar* Reported to Have Perished, bat th* Exact List I* Not Known— Fir* Said to Be Work of a Discharged Employ*. A dispatch from Baku, Transcaucasia, reports that a disastrous fire destroyed some 40,000,000 poods of naphtha belonging to the Caspian Black Sea company’s naphtha works. The fire started in the magazines, which contained 6,000,000 poods of petroleum, destroyed these and spread to the naphtha depots. The oil poured out like a stream of lava,' inundating and setting fire to the dwellings of the workmen nearby. These were totally destroyed and many persons perished. Twenty charred bodies have been found and upward of fifty persons are terribly burned. Four hundred families lost everything they possessed. All the available hospitals are filled with people injured by the fire, while the sheds on the fair grounds are filled by those made homeless by the conflagration. The fire broke out in the evening at meal time and spread so rapidly that many people were unable to escape from their homes. The fire also cut off the retreat of the spectators, thirty of whom perished. It is believed the conflagration was started by a discharged employe, for the pur-

pose of revenge, and it is further reported that the naphtha reservoirs had been previously filled with water which in overflowing carried the flaming fluid over the town, involving all the houses as far as Police street. The stream of fire was several yards high. Numbers of people were seen attempting to escape while burning like torches. The total number of victims is not ascertainable at present.

CITY OF BAKU, THE SCENE OF THE GREAT FIRE.