FIREMEN BATTLE FEATURE OF CASE ru y tno a a ua la W TH OIL PLIES Pacific States Plant at Fruit- vale Burns: Loss About $100,000. (Continued From Page 1) taining a half million barrels of oil, were saved with difficulty, and for a time even the ships on the estuary were menaced by the flames. The fire caused a black pillar of smoke to rear itself skyward, forming an awesome spectacle. A defective valve In an automobile truck darted the fir, the damn of which will, It Id estimated, total more than 1100,000. John May, a chauffeur, had filled the machine from the Mr tank In the store room and stssled the en-tine. It l believed that ho may have flooded the engine In nilln the tank. At he turned the crank there wai I sharp report, and the entire atoreroom almost Instantly buret Into flames. , WARNS EMPLOYES. Jamea Mott. storehouse man. attempted with a Are extinguisher to quell the blase, which spread rapidly as the burn-In 611 ran from the door toward th gasoline drums outside onY the sldUig. Mott turned In the refinery fire alVni. warrant: the 23 .employes who had JuST tarted work of their peril. Dv 7:30 o'clock the entlr duftyard of the refinery, where the oil cars were tracked, was ablais. With a aeries of dull reports the gasoline drums a Ion a; th siding burst, acat- trtn Burning fluid among the cars. which burst into flames, and the crude oil In them belched1" forthfiTeavy. blinding black smoke, which obsMred the flames from the sight of the fire fighters. PlREMEN begin battle. rn-'xhe'-meantlrne Carl Corrlgan, the pump, man, had turned In the Are alarm and-" notified the police. Six Are companies arrived, hitching their hose to hydrants and also taking water from the estuary to Olav on the flame. The Southern Pacific power ttOuse, across the stationed men on top or its big Western Fuel Trial Hinges Considerable on Charges Against-Witness, Is Belief. (Continued From Page.l.) visited the Nanolmu mines In British Co lumbia, owneil by the Western FurJ Company, and claimed to have found that' the coal was properly weighed before being; shipped here. SECRET SERVICE WORK. A number of secret Rervlce men are to. day working on the rase of Powers, endeavoring to cheek up his assertion regarding the alleged conspiracy ap.almt him. A delegation of Washington secret service men has been for some time on the Western Fuel case,. Kdwin rtnvein, confirmed his statement today that lie would have startling revelations to inaku during the trial. The trial was delayed for half an hour this morning by reason of the tardlncM of Fred Becker, an Oakland birtctiexinlw is one of the Jurors. Hecker was caught In a -fog hank while crossing the hay and reached the courtroom breathless and profuse with his apologies for being lute. was made of wdo.l and sheet-iron, and the refinery fire, alVnhl tort atreet, oil tank and constahtlv water played on this structure. The Alaska Packing comnany s fire tug Phoenix ar rived on call to play a stream on the tunnel which leads Fruit -ale creek under the street into the ostuarv. and which had filled with biirnln- nil. Hid this been released Into the -tuary. say th firemen. It would have Immediately surrounded the) shins moored near the Fruit- aie, avenue bridge, and spread devaaia tlOn .throiiuh the ahlnnlnrr district. Prettdent William Lang of the reflnlnt rnnpany was hastily notified and Mvl en the scene when the flames were at their highest. He declared that It was Impossible to accurately fix damages, as re had no clear Idea of the oil stored In the place. 'The plant covers six acres. end Is one of the biggest about the nay. STflAMBEATEN BACK. A large benslne an!t, containing Hn.fKV) gallons, at the northeast coiner of the plant, waa protected at the risk of live by a band of Oakland firemen And employes of the nlacs nndr the direction nf Assistant Fire Chief Short. The burning oil, , rushing toward the great receptacle, waa. beaten hack time and time again. K. Engvlck. a workman, while at this point, waa overcome by heat and removed from the acene of the fight. Albert. Ros. a fireman, was taken sway after a large cinder had lodged In his eye. These were the only two Injuries reported, except for several cases of haueau due to the hecvr smoke. TANKS EXPLODE, A panic was spread among tha crowds whloh gathered on Friiltvale avenue to watch the blase when four big tanks of tasollne exploded. No one. however, wts Inlured, Fire truck No. 14, an automobile engine, ran off the bank on Frull-vsle avenue while rushing to the scene of the fire, and was temporarily disabled. Assistant Fire Chief Bam Short. In eommand of the flr flghtera, had a dnsen narrow escapsa. Dodging under falling timbers, sklnnlna over streams of Was. ng oil and being nearly caught in gasoline drum extensions; ho covered the entire plant, encouraging hlg men. Engines from the Alameda flra department, hastily called to tho scene, were unable -to cross th Friiltvale bridge, but stayed by to protect, the ships on the Istuary In-ease the barrier that held the oil In the tunnel- should burst. '" FIRENjEN IN DANGER. Working tinder the shadow of the great benzine tank, the firemen protecting It Were In constant danger. It was not until this afternoon-' that the flra was in control. Th oll-wsjr altowed to burn" it-"1 Self out.' No attempt was made, after the first ' hour-to quell the blase, this belrg found Imncsslhle. The structure "I have no clear Idea of how It happened." declared May. driver of the auto which started the blaze. "I had come In for work and filled the machine bef re Starling nut on the day's deliveries. 1 turned the crank; there waa a flash, an.l the whole place was in flames. I jumped way from the auto, saw that nothing could he done and ran puHlde Mott grabbed a (ire extinguisher, ami saw thnt it was too much to handle. He t-ttrned In the plant's fire whistle and got cut. So did Corrlgan. Then we had the city fire alarm turned In and the police came." ESCAPE IMPERATIVE. "There was no chance to do anything but get out," declared Mott. "She was afire, and the drums started going up. It -was a case for the fire department, not for us." A barn owned by Mrs. A. Innes, near the fire, waa ignited by a flyiug spark, and the structure, with $If00 worth of hay, was destroyed. The total loes was $3500. The plant stands In a large field with no hoiitea within half a mile on the Oakland side and the estuary between It and Alamrdu. .When the alarm was first turret In the estuary was overhung With fog, and the firo was not visible until the firemen were less than 100 feet away. This accounted for the mishap In engine No. 1, hlch was forced to make a sharp turn to avoid a collision, and ran off the road. SAVES CHILD. Oeorge. Greene, desk man at the Melrose police station, had several narrow escapes. He was almost caught by a falling ttaber In sas a child which had wandered past the firo lines and entered the plant. The boy was sent away. Ills name was not learned. Superintendent J. Mai Pherson of the Southern PaclflO electric lines, with Assistant Superintendent William Ncrton. and George B. Claylord, took charge of tha Southern Paclflo fire fighting. Ma--Pherson offered the use of the company's tug AJax, hut was Informed by Assistant Chief Short that It would be useless by the time It arrived from over the bay. MacPherson directed the work of protecting the big Southern Pacific tanks across the street. At this point the heat from )he fire was so Intense that the men were forced to shade their faces. M. J. Halloran, superlntf ndent of the plant, directed the work of the company's men. REMARKABLE FIRE. It was one of the most remsrkahle fires I ever ssw," declared Assistant Fire Chief Short, - "In thnt while burning oil waa scattering all over, no one seen.s to have been hurt." A long stream of the oil ran along the fields toward Kruitvale when one of the tanks burned. This was allowed to burn Itself out. Traffic over the electric horse shoe lines to Alameda was temporarily tied up, .and so waa travel over the Southern Paclflo lines to Melrose. The power plant of the railroad company was not Injured. Officers of the refinery declare that no accurate estimate of the damage can he made for several days. The entire plant was roughly estimated at $230,000 when en tanks were run." it is not Known ex actlv how m-rtwh nil was burned. In a