| Show gas gag explosion 0 s 1 puts richfield business house in lames volunteer fire department confines flames to one building A fire ignited by butane gas and kindled with hundreds of gallons of volatile paint and several cases of ammunition reduced the building occupied by dons sport Kich fields north ma main n street etto to rubble tuesday in a three and one half hour battle that could easily have claimed the entire business block had it not been for the efficient fire fighting of the richfield vie fire department part ment the building belonging to J vernon E erickson rick gon wai was gutted beyond repair and will have to be torn down the owner placed the estimated loss between 15 and 20 thousand dollars don ogden manager of dons sport shop and the sevier valley Gs gas and appliance company stated that there was hardly any salvageable salva gable merchandise left in the sports department and many appliances on the display floor were destroyed the office equipment of the ray E carr insurance company which occupied the same building was scorched but the business files were left intact Abstract abstractor eri D W ogden who had an office in the rear rear had a complete loss of equipment two offices on the second floor of 0 the richfield commercial savings bank were damaged when flames licked through the skylight of the sport shop and set fire to the large seven foot square office window frames dr leslie Poul sons office was badly sched and in dr J G me quarries qua aries office the reception room was charred and a reported several thousand dollar loss in equipment in the xray x ray room so southern the m supply the building adjacent on the north suffered no damage except for abr a little water that seeped through the fire wall hear gas escaping clerk dorothy hill was waiting on a customer mrs art roberts of sigurd when a 20 pound 5 gallon butane tank started to hiss gas in into to the room the two women fled from the building and miss hill wen went finto into southern supply for aid bill horne home manager of southern supply rushed toward the scene of the I 1 excitement cit ement just in timi time to see much of the glass fro from the front of the shop explode across the street mr home and glen gien beutler rushed into the building and thought they had the fire under control with hand fire eating fishers when the fire department arrived with their two trucks at about that instant flames licked up on the center partition and the fumes were so overcoming that the two men had to go out of the building As the firemen assembled their equipment a rumbling roar r ripped pi lames flames through the building up through the skylight and against the bank building billowing black smoke poured from the front rear and opening in the roof cause of explosion don ogden stated that the small butane tank had been filled at the companas comp anys bulk plant just south sauth of town about an hour previously and had been left at the store to be picked i UP by a customer he went on to say that a defective defect iye lye valve popped when the warm room boom built up pressure inside the tank he believes that when t the h e escaping gas reached the pilot bight ona on i a gas space heater about 10 feet away away the gas exploded it ivas was the subsequent explosions of over gallons of paint turpentine linseed oll oil 30 gallons of paint thin thinner nerin in a 50 gallon drum druin and 9 cases of shotgun shells that made the fire ire so difficult to fight he sa said d k the butane tank that caused the initial explosion still had one of the original five gallons left after the fire and the tank supplying fuel for the gas heater did not explode the total loss exclusive of the smoke and water damage was placed between and all of th the damage was partially covered by insurance monroe stands by the fire department arrived at the scene in record time but for a few minutes when exploding flames were licking the side of the bank building and throwing clouds of billowing smoke and sparks out the front windows and over the root of southern supply there was wa s a good possibility that the fire would g get t ou out t of control and consume consume the entire block the monroe fire department part ment was immediately summoned and they arrived with their new truck shortly afterwards they stood by with all equipment ready but the richfield department was able to quell the blaze |
