Salt Lake Telegram | 1934-04-24 | Page 1 | Utah Alcohol Plant Burns; One Injured

UTAH ALCOHOL AL PLANT BURNS ONE INJURED I I st Starts Fire S fl S' S 11 a. a I If i. i Distillery r I MOTOR SPARK IS BLAMED I Believed to Have Caused Ex- Ex i r r- r ri i of Fumes to The Telegram ram SPRINGVILLE April An 24 ex- ex set oU off by a spark mm an I electric motor caused l a f re which destroyed the plant of the Springville Commercial Alcohol corn com pan pany a mile south of here Tuesday and critically burned an The worker Lynn Knight 29 of Springville a distillery operator was tak taken n to the Springville hosp hospital tal after staggering from the third floor loor of the building his clothing ablaze Twenty thousand gallons of alcohol were burned Thc fire was still burn jog ing at 2 p. p m. m with only onh the ground floor of the story four structure stand stand- ing O. O W. W V. V Flygare plant superintendent dent and Myron stout chemist were the third floor where the on expo lion sion occurred but escaped uninjured The explosion rocked the building at 1115 a. a m. m and lire broke out Im- Im sweepIng the structure be fore lire fire departments arrived from Sp Spanish n h Fork Pr Provo vo and Th rh l plant is operated in n with the Springville-Ma- Springville pIcton Sugar company on the same grounds The latter building was n nat t damaged firemen keeping the blaze to 10 the alcohol plant BR Smoot of Salt Lake vice president dent of the alcohol company aid s-aid id a spark from a motor apparently set o off distillation fumes Mr Smoot was unable to say whether er r the losS is entirely covered by in in- The alcohol plant was built seven years ago by the Utah Industrial Al AI cohol company and was acquired by bythe bythe the Utah Idaho Sugar company three years ago ago It had a daily capacity o oi 1500 gallons it is reported Describing the blaze O. O V. V W. W Flygare superintendent of the alco- alco hal hol plant said Mr Knight and myself were regulating regulating regu- regu lating the alcohol tills stills on the third A spark from an electric motor motor mo- mo tor ignited fumes from the al alcohol An awful explosion followed Alco Alco- hol ho drums drum were thrown through the root roof or of the plant and carried more than a hundred feet into the air i Our clothes caught fire and I- I i started for the thc staIrway How I got down and out I dont don't know but when I found lound myself outside I threw myself my- my self ef down and rolled in the thc dirt ex cx- the thc flames on my cloth cloth- II In log I looked around for Kni Knight ht but buthe buthe he was not In sight It probably was five minutes before Knight came out I thing he must have fallen lallen and rolled down the last flight or of stairs and out of the door Bystanders rushed him to the hospital I wasn't hurt hurl The distillery was as built by the Utah Industrial Alcohol company and purchased from that or by the he sugar u ar company compan officials said L 1