| Show ane firms fire bur burns for 2 24 hours fours One of the longest and most expensive fires of the area hit Searle Gas Company propane storage battery Saturday afternoon making a spectacular show that scared many people The initial blast and blaze broke out just after 2 pm p.m. when Raymond Searle and Eugene Weist were loading a propane service truck from a storage tank along side six other tanks having a combined capacity of gallons of petroleum ACCORDING TO Woodey B B. B Searle owner of the business and father of Raymond his son pulled away in the service truck without unhooking a hose on the truck Although the vapor hose had been disconnected and the pressure released the excess flow safety valve on the truck failed to function and when the hose was pulled away gas was released The gas followed a ditch to a nearby barn where open flame water heaters were burning which evidently ignited the gas shooting a aflame aflame aflame flame explosion back to the truck From the service truck the flames shot directly onto the pressure relief valves of the large storage tank The flames burned out the seals in the pressure relief valve in the large tank but a check valve stopped the flow of gas to a relatively small amount which was the reason for the long duration of the fire lasting until about Sunday noon The barn was almost immediately consumed by fire l I EXPLAINED that as long as the fire was burning there was never a chance of an explosion The tanks are so constructed with safety valves to prevent such dangers But the problem was the gas could not be turned off so it had to be either burned up or transferred out of the tanks Four large storage tanks were involved Mr Searle estimated about gallons of gas burned and about six truck transports full of gas were pumped out and stored in other gas companies' companies storage tanks MR SEARLE and his wife were in Fort Worth Texas at atthe atthe atthe the time of the fire attending a horse cutting show where one of Mr Searles Searle's horses was performing The couple arrived home Sunday at 4 30 pm p.m. Mr Searle estimated his loss at from to Including including including in In- burned gas two service trucks and one farm truck barn corral hay and snowmobiles No insurance covered the loss loos Mr Searle has been in the propane gas business for 22 years The large storage tanks willbe will willbe willbe be repaired and tested and then put back into use stated Mr Searle Mr Searle stated he was grateful no one was Injured during the fire The only injuries other than exhaustion were minor facial pealing burns to Raymond Searle MR m. SEARLE reported there was no real threat of an explosion The fire could have been extinguished but this would present a hazard since the gas could not be shut off due to the burned up valve |
