1/17/1983 Newark, New Jersey a devastating gasoline vapor explosion claimed the life of one oil company employee and injured 24, the destruction of 4 storage tanks, and the loss of 3 million gallons of gasoline at 12:16 a.m. Failing to monitor the tank-filling operation properly resulted in a spill that was ignited by flashback from a nearby incinerator resulted in several minor initial explosions followed by the destructive explosion. – 1/17/1957 Liberal, KS a pipeline gas compressor explosion kills 3 workmen and threatening natural gas supplies as far east as Detroit; caused by the failure of a piece of equipment on a compressor engine. – 1/17/1956 SS Salem Maritime tanker explosion and fire kills 21 in Lake Charles, LA after gasoline leaked from a defective bulkhead and entered a tank being loaded with kerosene; a spark ignited the vapors on board the 10,584 gross ton tanker built in 1945 – 1/17/1942 Seattle, WA White Center House fire killed three when one of the victims “poured kerosene into a stove in which she believed all embers had died.” – 1/17/1938 a father and four children died in a fire that destroyed their two-story frame house. – 1/17/1912 Livingston, MT the picture film caught fire forcing 4000 to evacuate the theatre that “started a wild rush for the exits, Mrs. E. Powers White, wife of the owner of the theater, rushed on to the stage and began to sing, America, thus saying the panic.” – 1/17/1911 Buffalo, NY the Hotel Statler is destroyed by fire – 1/17/1908 Scranton, PA a fire at the Knitting Mill kills 4 and seriously injured 10 of the 85 girls on the 3 floor after the fire broke out on the ground floor where some men were varnishing furniture in a warehouse and quickly ascended the elevator shaft. “The fire escape is one of those in which the last reach of stairs is held in a horizontal position by a wright and pulley device. The girls first to reach this were afraid to descend it when they saw its far end moving downward. This caused a jam.”– 1/17/1906 six large brick buildings are destroyed on Merchants Row by fire in Rutland, VT that were occupied by nearly a score of firms that started shortly before 4:00 a.m. “Two heavy party walls finally arrested the flames, and the energetic work of the firemen won out.” – 1/17/1898 Williams, AZ Fire a fire in railroad tunnel kills 1 after sparks from an engine set the timbering on fire in the Fairview Tunnel on the Santa Fe Road, while men were fighting the fire in the tunnel a mass of rocks and charred timbers caved-in. – 1/17/1884 Las Vegas, NM the Montezuma Hotel is destroyed by fire around noon. – 1/17/1995, Kobe Japan earthquake registering 7.2 on the Richter scale caused massive destruction killing over 5500 people 1/17/1994 an earthquake (Northridge quake) in Los Angeles, CA kills 54 – 1966 H-bomb lost in Spain when a B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 jet tanker over Spains Mediterranean coast. – 1893 President Rutherford B. Hayes died – 1893 Hawaiian monarchy is overthrown by a group of American sugar planters. – 1950 The Great Brinks Robbery when 11 thieves well timed and choreographed strike and steals more than $2 million from the Brinks Armored Car depot in Boston, Massachusetts. – 1781 the Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina – 1706 Benjamin Franklin birthday –
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 10:12:23 +0000
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