Fires Pennsylvania

A gasoline fire raging out of control threatened to engulf a tank farm at an oil refinery on the outskirts of the city, fire officials said Monday. Winds of up to 15 m.p.h. fanned the flames, and balls of fire rolled up into a thick, black column of smoke that could be seen 10 miles away. "We're having a terrible time," Fire Commissioner William Richmond said. "It's hairy." An eighth alarm was sounded Monday afternoon at the Chevron oil refinery.

A railroad tank car containing white phosphorous caught fire Monday at a Conrail switching yard, and 4,000 nearby residents were evacuated for several hours as a precautionary measure, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

A six-alarm fire that burned out of control at a warehouse Sunday afternoon halted Amtrak's Northeast Corridor service for three hours, officials said. More than 1,000 passengers had to wait when five southbound trains stopped in Trenton and four northbound trains stopped in Philadelphia between 3 and 6 p.m., Amtrak spokeswoman Marci Larson said. Amtrak reduced the speed limit on the two tracks to 30 m.p.h. when they reopened, said Bob Cook, a supervisor at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station.

The owner of a huge pile of tires in Philadelphia that caught fire and destroyed part of a heavily traveled stretch of Interstate 95 was convicted of risking a catastrophe. Owner Daniel Carr and Gerald Laarz, the dump foreman and Carr's son-in-law, piled up 300,000 tires, then ignored state warnings to clean up the mess, prosecutors said.

A man was burned on 40% of his body Wednesday while trying to rescue five cats from his burning apartment, authorities said. At least two of the cats died, and two were missing. Eugene F. Hastings II, who had burns on his chest, back, arms and hands, was in serious condition at West Penn Hospital.

An explosion Monday blew the top off a refinery storage tank that was filled mostly with water and caused a fire that raged for 70 minutes, authorities said. One person was injured by flying glass in the blast at the Atlantic Refining & Marketing Corp. The cause of the blast was under investigation.

Two guards fired from the Philadelphia Zoo because of the fire that killed 23 primates had been making personal phone calls when they should have been on rounds, zoo officials say. One of the guards said they did everything right and are being made scapegoats. "We might as well have struck a match to start it, the way they are saying it," said Edith Henry, 38, who was on duty during the Christmas Eve fire.

A high-rise inferno that burned for almost 19 hours was brought under control Sunday after killing three firefighters and gutting nine floors of a 38-story skyscraper. The 12-alarm blaze raged from 8:30 p.m. Saturday until 3 p.m. Sunday, when it reached a floor with automatic sprinklers and firefighters were able to direct water into windows, Fire Commissioner Roger M. Ulshafer said.

A fire in a rural trailer home Thursday killed a woman and her four children, police said. The cause of the blaze had not been determined.