— ......
T K X A ^
^ ■
low ering Billows of Smoke, Scorched Earth in Disaster
Ambulanct fr®»" Amorillo and oHicr Plains ciflns w ort quick to respond to calls for help when disaster struck
tne Shomrock O il & G a s Corp. McKee Plant neor Dumas yesterday. Bodies of victims were loaded in the area of Hie
tank farm where searing flame blackened the earth and left bodies of Dumas and Sunroy firemen fallen in their tracks
« they leaped from their t^ c k s when the blast came. Tank at the far right exploded Its own lethal load of fuel after
the original blast from a mixer tank, ¡ust to its left, brought swift tragedy. View is north.
Smoke Is billowing to the east in this aerial view of the M c K e e Plant which shows the ‘T o c ^ lo n "o fih e tc o r X d 'T c T n k
form area in relotion to the remoinder of the plant.
LEGS FROZEN IN A LONG STRIDE...
1
By D ( ) \ BOYETT
n i MAS, July 29 — Death Is
never pretty. Death by fire is
truly ugiy.
No m atter how m any tim es
you see it, your nerves are
never quite steeled for the sight.
I was in the first group of
newsmen to arrive in Dum as.
We parked our car outside the
Four Grim Words
Tell Awful Story
By JOHN MASTERMAN
D«il.v .Np\vs Staff Writer
DUMAS. July 29 — “Tank
fire at Sham rock." Paschcl
Pool, the m arshal of the Dumas
Volunteer F ire D epartm ent,
scrawled those words on a
blackboard in the fire station as
he hurried off in the bright
Panhandle dawn today.
They W’ere the last words
written by 31-y e a r-o ld Paschel
F’ooi. He and ti\e other Dumas
firem en perished as a rolling
wave of flam e engulfed them.
The grim sign was still hang­
ing in the station this afternoon
as Itie luckier m em bers of the
30-man departm ent—the men
who hadn’t been called to the
Sham rock plant—talked about
the tragedy.
One of them was E verett
Shaha, 117 N. Maddox, who re­
ported for duty this morning
t u t wa.s a iked to stay behind,
was standing in my yard
....................................—
tank farm gate and I walked
in past a warehouse to the
scene.
AN AREA THE size of hvo
football fields charred bare.
Numerous sm all mounds sur­
rounded by white splotches
stood out against the blackened
earth. Three blazing trucks
were nearbv.
watching the sm oke," Shaha standing at a gate talking to an­
said. “Then t h e explosion
cam e. It was just like an
atomic l)omb. The smoke m ust
have gone up to 5,000 feet.
“ I knew .somebody had to be from the point of the explosion,"
h urt."
• •
ONE O F the luckier ones was
27-year-old Jody Craig, a ro­ seemed to drop down on me.
tund "to u rm an " a t the Contin­
ental Carbon Co. plant located
2 h miles northeast of the
Shamrock refinery.
A bachelor, Craig gets free
lodging at the fire station in re ­ and head swathed in bandages,
turn for being available for the yellow ointm ent he’d been
night emergencies. He w a s
about to leave for w'ork a t the
carbon plant today when the
alarm came from Shamrock.
Craig was with the other fire­
men for more than half an
hour. Then, he had to leave for
his job. He’d walked aw ay right. *T went to Doc Brow n," other s m a l l - c i t y departm ent
from the firemen and w^as he said. "H e’s the best doctor
--------------------------- M ir,
TTie sm all s m o u l d e r i n g
mounds were bodies of men
who lost their lives fighting the
blaze. The white spots were
from fire extinguishers.
LE(iS FROZEN in a long
stride and position of most of the
bodies indicated the men were
racing the all-consuming ball of
fire at the tim e death came.
other m an, an am bulance driv­ in town for burns. It doesn’t
er who was there—in case.
“ I v.a*f a good block away
Craig said. “ 1 looked up and
saw it coming and turned.
There was just a loud explosion,
then intense heat — the heat
“ It didn’t knock me dowm.
I knew I was burned but I
didn't know how seriously."
Craig was in the fire station
this afternoon, his arm s, back
sm eared with staining his band­ was set afire and extinguished
ages. A blister the size of a
silver dollar peeked through the
gauze on his elbow.
He didn’t look like a m an who
should have been w a l k i n g
around, but he said he was all fire station looked like mast any
u a il y ^L W S . AM ARIIXO.
,
---
But death undoubtedly came
swiftly. The searing heat must
have been quick, almost painless.
Two* company trucks, both
headed east away from the fire
after unloading cans of foamite
a t the scene, were only skeletons.
Less than three feet from the
driver’s door of each truck was
n body where the driver had
THANKS TO ALL
OUMAS, Ju ly 29 — "W e
c e rta in ly w an t to expremn mir
ap p re cia tio n for the w onderful
and v alu ab le help our neigh­
bors have given us. We w ant
to give our sin cere th a n k s,"
M ayor H. S. J Ic M u rra y s a i d
tm lav.
hurt at a ll."
• • 9
"JF L V 2«, 1956, the Dumas
V^olunteer F ire D epartm ent met
for their reg ular drill in the
fire station at 7:30 p .m ."
These are the m inutes of the
last m eeting of Dumas fire de­
partm ent — three days before
more than one fifth of the
m em bers lost their lives.
"F ire drill was held on use of
low pressure fog on gasoline and
•jil fire.s and the use of foam.
"A pit vvith ga.soline and oil
with both low pressjre fog and
foejm. The fire was extinguished
much quicker with foam than
the fog. .
THIS aftemocn, the Durnas
(Continued on Page 2)
Amarillo Daily News, July 30, 1956,Pg. 3, Amarillo, Texas, US
https://newspaperarchive.com/amarillo-daily-news-jul-30-1956-p-3/
Closeup of burning fuel tanks at McKee Plant near Dumas where nearly a score died^and 30 were*^lnped yes^^
Viel^ireast***^*
Two M e K .e Plont fuel took, .end up torche. of troq.dy !n thi. elos.-up view of t(.e'’ M cKe';
fire from another tank, obscured by the heat-scarred tonk at center, increases the rolume of billowing smoke. View
IS north.
abandoned his vehicle m his last
race for life.
TfRES ON the S unray fire
truck were still burning and sev­
eral charred hoses lay from it
into the ruins of the tank and to
fire hydrants across the railway
spur as part of the mute evi-
dence of a gallant fight against
A id Sped to Dumas
By CHARLES K I.EÍN
Daily New» S¡a!t Writer
DUMAS, July 29 -Help poured
into Dumas today from all sides
of the Panhandle after word
.spread of the disasterou.s blast
which took 19 lives and injured
another 31 m en at the Shamrock
Gas & Oil McKee plant.
From A m arillo cam e volun­
te er firem en, policemen, am bu­
lances, nurses, and mobile can­
teen and mobile rescue units.
THE A M A RU J.O Air Force
Base sent crash trucks with 10-
men crews and a total capacity
of 1,500 gallons of w ater and
150 gallons of foam.
Several units of the P otter
County sheriff's office were on
hand.
UNITS O F the National G uard
took posts throughout the city
as a sem i-m artial law was set
up to avoid panic and confusion.
Army reserve units directed
traffic together with local and
sta te police LJiit?.
M embers of auxiliary fire and
I L
■■
m a n 's oldest enemy.
It was les.s than two hours
after the first explosion and
re.scue workers were starting
to move in to rem ove bodies.
They were still trx) hot to han­
dle. Workers lifted them onto
blankets and quilts and then
loaded them into waiting am ­
bulances.
police departm ents from Am­
arillo to Pam pa rushed to the
.scene to offer w tiatever assi.st-
ance they could. A nj ever>*
town within a radius of 50 rnile.s
sent offers of help, men and
hospital supplies to the .scene.
S I’NR.AY lost its only fire
truck and its entire volunteer
fire departm ent personnel in
the tragic fjre. Dumas lost two
trucks and several of its fire­
men.
The Amarillo F ire D epart­
ment im m ediately replaced rhe
lost Sunray truck and offered
tem porary m anpow er to stand
by in the ev^nt of emergency
need. They ai.so offered a truck
to Durnas to replace lost équipe­
ment.
l.V 4I)rHTION, F ire Chief R.
P. Hill m ade two trips to Dum­
as to assist fire fighters and to
advise on tactics to fight the
blaze. On his first trip he es­
corted ten m en and an em er­
gency and rescue unit to the
I
■ ,.
ignited by seoring heat from ¡H neighbors.
“ a rtPrd
T H E R E W E R E several am ­
bulances and a num ber of men
moving the bodies, hut they
nee<led help.
I helped three others pick up
one of the first bodies and load
it into a waiting ambulance.
We went back and picked up
two others.
PI.ANT W ORKERS called In
to help at th e scene w ere
scene. He was recalled shortl.v
before 2 p.m. when a shift of
wind.s threatened other huge
storage tanks in the im m ediate
area of the fire.
But fortunately the w eather
was a.s cooperative as were the
good neighbors from through­
out tne Panhandle. The winds
rem ained from the .southwest
elim inating any danger to other
tanks and to the refinery it.self.
At 4 p.rn. a slight drizzle aided
In wetting dowar .surroundirvg
tanks and pipelines.
.ME.MBER.H of the Amarillo
Helium Plant offered any as-
si.stance they could render as
did Max Cohen, of the U. S.
M arine R eserve Unit here.
Much of the volunteer help
a m v e d at Dumas within min­
utes of the blast and cam e un­
solicited.
A IJ. UNITS of the Amarillo
Ambulance Servuce w ere dis­
patched to the scene and aided
in rem oving the i.njured and
dead firm the scene, Horner
PAGE QNE-g
stunned. At tim es they wan­
dered around in a daze along
with a few surviving firem en.
These m en they had knossm as
friends for years.
The am bulances moved aw ay
from the still blazing tanks.
Their sirens w ere silent. Their
red lights did not burn.
Death here today was uglv
Kwton, o perator of th« s e n ic e ,
rem ained throughout the day
aiding in the Identificaticm of
the dead.
Telephone lines w ere jam n ’ed
in and out of Dum as and calls
were listed as delayed from two
to four hours.
A Y O l’NG couple returning
to Raton Rouge. La., fntvm a va­
cation in Colorado heard of the
catastrophe on th eir c a r rndio
and stopped off a t Dumas early
jt^sterday m orning and rem ain­
ed throughout the day assisting
with the injured. The young
woman is a laboratory techni­
cian.
And Si .San Angelo doctor, «Iso
driving thrnugh. stopped and
assisted 16 other volunteer doc­
tors in addition to the ]>amas
Hosmtal staff in treating the
injured.
Eleven m em bers of the Ma­
rine Corps in Am arillo last
night went to D um as to relieve
some of the exhausted law en­
forcem ent officers.