A partial collection of people, places and events that have made
Chesapeake City the unique and desirable location that it has become today.
DEATH DEALING EXPLOSION
This photo was taken at the moment of the explosion of the 6,000 gallon high
test tank which caused two deaths, numerous serious burns. It was snapped by
Corporal Walter Kulley, Md. State Police, who was standing at the four corners
of the town.
Another photo at bottom of page.
Cecil Whig - Thursday, May 24, 1956
One Chesapeake City Fireman was killed and four were injured Friday morning, May 18, while giving mutual aid to the Galena Fire Company which was fighting a series of oil tank explosions in the town.
Richard L. Loller was pronounced dead of a fractured skull by Dr. R. C. Dodson, county medical examiner.
He was hit by a limb from a tree, cut off from a five ton section of steel tank which was hurled into the air by the last explosion.
Also killed by a falling limb was Harry Robert Brice, 24 of Betterton.
Chesapeake City firemen injured in the explosion were Walter Long 34, Merritt Collins 22, Harry Caleb 18 and William Cooling 51.
Long, Collins and Caleb suffered severe burns of the face and arms and were taken to Kent-Queen Annes Hospital, Chestertown, where they are reported making satisfactory progress.
Cooling was treated at the hospital for burns of the face and hands and released.
Also injured were Herman Voshell, Jr., 20, Millington, Md., Olston Wright, 30, Galena both of whom were taken to the hospital with severe burns; Lewis F. Steele, 34, Galena, and Noah Skinner, 31, Sudlersville, who were treated at the hospital and released.
Observers say there were several explosions, the first about 7:30 a.m., and the last and death dealing blast about 8:30 a.m.
The home of Captain and Mrs. Norman L. Riggin, directly opposite the plant, was damaged by the fire. Its front was blistered and its windows were blown out.
Two other houses were damaged by the tank section which ripped off about eight branches on three large maple trees across the street, tore off the rear right corners of the dwellings, and finally came to rest on a back yard shed.
The Galena school and two or three additional houses also were damaged. R. W. Corr, Kent County Superintendent of Schools was able to get in touch with the school bus drivers before they started their rounds and the 325 students were given a day off.
James E. Ryan, mayor of Galena and owner of the blasted Kent Oil Company, estimated the damage at between $60,000 and $75,000.
Leveled by the flames and the force of the explosion were a frame office building, a long narrow wood and concrete shed used for storing the firm's four delivery trucks, and a barn to the rear of the fuel tanks.
The driver of an oil tank truck was on the storage plant grounds when the first blast took place.
Police identified him as Dutton Mill of Green Ridge, Pa., who said he did not know what happened.
Mill was unloading fuel oil
into a tank and leaped into his partially empty tank truck and drove away when
the first explosion came.
Excerpts from other publications:
The death dealing explosion of a 6,000 gallon tank, partially filled with high test gasoline came nearly an hour after the fire had been discovered sent the greater part of the huge tank soaring through the air for more than 150 yards, wrecking homes, trees, power and telephone wires. It was flying debris, either tree limbs or part of a power pole which killed the two firemen and the extreme heat from the flash fire which burned a dozen or more other people close to the scene.
It appeared that the falling tree limbs, or
sections of a power pole which was ripped to pieces, caused the fatal injuries
to the men who were standing in apparent safety some 50 yards from the scene of
the blast.
The explosion sent a great section of the tank in a jet-like course
through the air, carrying with it a mass of flaming fuel and fumes.
Zachary Cooling, left, Mayor of Chesapeake City,
and William
Bendler examine the burned equipment of the town's firemen
who were injured in the explosion at Galena, Md.
Photo courtesy of Lewis Collins, Jr.
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