TWO FIREFIGHTERS KILLED AND TWO WORKERS FATALLY BURNED IN ASPHALT TANK EXPLOSION – PERTH AMBOY, NEW JERSEY – JUNE 23, 1949

Two Firefighters Killed and Two Workers Fatally Burned in Tank Explosion While Battling Fire in Asphalt Plant – California Refining Company – Perth Amboy, New Jersey – June 23, 1949

 On June 23, 1949, Volunteer Firemen Lawrence Dambach and Howard Adams died in an explosion while operating a hoseline at a fire in an asphalt plant at the California Refining Company in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Members were playing a chemical fire stream on a burning tank when an adjacent 10,000-gallon asphalt tank exploded tossing the two firemen into a three-foot deep pool of burning asphalt. Their tar-covered bodies could not be recovered for several hours until the fire was brought under control. Eight others were injured, two critically burned. A company worker, Michael Tonaway, died later that night in the hospital from extensive burns received in the explosion. Melvin Worth, a truck driver who had pulled into the plant for a load shortly before the explosion, died from his burn injuries on June 25. Oil company firefighters and members of the Perth Amboy Fire Department spent more than five hours extinguishing the blaze. Multiple blasts and the resulting fires all but destroyed the asphalt plant causing $500,000 in damages.

The plant involved in the incident was operated by the California Refining Company, a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company of California in a waterfront industrial area along the Arthur Kill, a waterway that separates New Jersey from the New York City borough of Staten Island. Originally built by the Barber Asphalt Company in 1920, the complex was located at 1200 State Street, about 2.5 miles north of the downtown Perth Amboy business district. The sprawling complex covered a 339-acre site and had petroleum refining processing equipment and multiple storage tanks. Multiple rail lines and private roadways crisscrossed the complex which also included a dockside loading facility on the adjacent Arthur Kill. The asphalt processing area contained numerous stills, process machinery, and storage tanks used to refine petroleum products into liquid asphalt. The complex was protected by a fire brigade consisting of 31 plant employees trained in flammable liquid firefighting. The brigade was equipped with two trailer-mounted 500-gpm fire pumps with 500 feet of 2 ½-inch hose. The complex was served by several private fire hydrants fed by a looped six-inch water main. A 1500-gpm fire pump equipped with a foam system was also available at the site. There were multiple private fire alarm call boxes near the asphalt plant. The asphalt storage tanks were enclosed by a 5-foot-high earthen dike designed to contain any spillage of flammable liquids.

Perth Amboy is a city in northeastern Middlesex County in the State of New Jersey. The 5.96 square mile city had a 2020 U.S. census population of 55,436. Perth Amboy borders Woodbridge Township to the north and west; Sayreville to the southwest, across the Raritan River; South Amboy, south across the upper reaches of Raritan Bay; and the New York City borough of Staten Island to the east across the Arthur Kill. Perth Amboy is one of the oldest cities in New Jersey dating back to its founding by Scottish settlers in 1683. During the colonial period and for a significant time thereafter, Perth Amboy was an important way-station for travelers between New York City and Philadelphia, as it was the site of a ferry that crossed the Arthur Kill to Tottenville, Staten Island. The city features a historic waterfront, which has gone through significant revitalization. The ethnically-diverse working class community has seen considerable redevelopment in recent years. A large industrial section of the city lies along the Arthur Kill and includes the Buckeye Perth Amboy and Kinder Morgan oil terminals and several large warehouses. The industrial area is isolated from the residential and commercial areas of the city by a NJ Transit railroad right-of-way on the west and Route 440 and the Outerbridge Crossing Bridge that connects the city with Staten Island on the south.

At the time of the asphalt plant explosion in 1949, the city was protected by the Perth Amboy Fire Department consisting of about 450 volunteer members, 3 chiefs, and 24 paid drivers and tillermen operating 5 engine companies and 3 ladder companies from 6 firehouses. The city was also protected by a Gamewell fire alarm system with 93 fire alarm call boxes distributed around the city. A municipally owned water system supplied more than 500 public and more than 150 private fire hydrants.

Today, the Perth Amboy Fire Department is an ISO Class 3 agency comprised of 84 career firefighters staffing two engine companies, one ladder company, a rescue company and an incident command vehicle responding from Fire Headquarters. Special operations units include a special operations support vehicle and water rescue units. The department has a reserve fleet of three spare engines and one spare ladder truck that are staffed by recalled career personnel during multiple alarm emergencies. The department also has a fireboat that is part of the New Jersey Regional Fireboat Task Force, which protects the waterways, waterfront properties and critical infrastructure of the Port of New York and New Jersey. The Bureau of Fire Prevention is staffed by a fire official and 20 fire inspectors. A Fire Investigation Unit is charged with investigating the origin and cause of all fires in the city. In 2025, the department responded to 2,465 emergency incidents including 184 fires of which 2 were multiple alarm fires.

Area weather conditions at 2 p.m. on June 23, 1949 included an air temperature of 83 degrees F and a relative humidity of 29% with northwest winds at 12 mph under fair skies (Weather Underground). Note: The wind condition may have contributed to fire development and the outcome of the incident.

On Thursday afternoon, June 23, 1949, units of the Perth Amboy Fire Department were alerted to a fire in the asphalt production plant at the California Refining Company at 1200 State Street in the northeastern portion of the city. City fire units arrived to find plant fire brigade members playing hose streams on a fire involving process machinery near two large liquid asphalt tanks. City firefighters stretched a chemical hoseline to attack the fire as large quantities of foam were employed in attempting to control the blaze.

At about 2 p.m., one of the asphalt tanks ruptured and the fire spread rapidly to the adjoining stills and storage tanks. Perth Amboy Volunteer Firemen Lawrence Dambach and Howard Adams were staffing a foam hoseline playing their stream on one of the burning asphalt tanks when a second explosion in an exposed 10,000-gallon asphalt tank caused the vessel to rocket 50 feet in the air, spewing its blazing contents on several firemen. Firemen Dambach and Adams were blown into a pit filled with three feet of blazing liquid asphalt. In a matter of minutes the plant was a roaring inferno. A number of firefighters had narrow escapes while fighting the treacherous flames, with several members being badly burned by the flaming tar and hot asphalt.

Perth Amboy Second Assistant Fire Chief Alex Pietraska said, “When firemen arrived at the plant it looked as though a bomb had dropped on it.” Hair and eyebrows were singed as the men hooked up lines and advanced through slime and melted tar to reach what appeared to be the center of the fire. Adams and Dambach were on a foam nozzle about five feet ahead of Howard Adam’s brother, Harry. Chief Pietraska was about five or ten feet behind Harry and both were lighting up the line for the men at the pipe. The first two men got in between two tanks which were described as steaming, spitting and whistling as they trained their stream on the center of the fire. Suddenly there was a whine like noise associated with the dropping of a bomb. The Chief yelled to the men to get back, as it looked as if a tank was going to blow. As the Chief and firemen began to run, there came a terrific blast, which caught the two nearest men. Howard Adams and Dambach were thrown into a three-foot deep pit filled with molten asphalt and burned to death.

Fireman Adams’ brother, Harry, said he had been helping Adams and Dambach play a chemical hoseline on the big tank when it exploded. He said his brother had told him to look for an escape route just before the blast. He got away uninjured but saw his brother and Dambach enveloped in asphalt. He was later treated for shock at the hospital.

One fireman and six other workers were injured. Two were on the critical list with severe burns. A third victim, plant employee Michael Tonaway, age 64, died of extensive burns later that night at Perth Amboy General Hospital. Most of the injured men were on a nearby asphalt loading dock when the explosion occurred. The shriveled, tar-covered bodies of the two volunteer firemen could not be recovered for several hours after they were blown into a ditch filled with boiling asphalt. Melvin Worth, a truck driver who had pulled into the plant for a load shortly before the explosion, died from his burn injuries on June 25.

For five hours the firemen fought the blaze that involved six or seven tanks, each containing 500 barrels (21,000 gallons) of asphalt, before bringing it under control as thousands of spectators lined the nearby roads. Black, greasy smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air over the ruined plant and was visible in Manhattan, 25 miles away. Also on the scene were members of the Avenel-Colonia First Aid Squad, the Woodbridge Emergency Squad and private firefighting squads from the Shell Oil, Sinclair Oil and American Oil plants. The cause of the fire and blasts were unknown but Fred W. Mayer, company vice president, said the plant was demolished. It was estimated that the damages would run to more than $500,000. Four railroad tank cars and a truck were also seared by the flames. The sprawling plant was located in an isolated waterfront district and no nearby residences or businesses were affected.

Perth Amboy Hospital Director Dr. George C. Schicks said the emergency caught the hospital with all its 270 beds filled and some patients quartered in corridors. He said convalescing patients freely gave up their beds when the injured men were brought in. Two fire department chaplains were on the scene and at the hospital to assist the injured men and their families.

Members of the Perth Amboy Fire Department killed in the line of duty at the California Refining Company Fire on June 23, 1949:

• Lawrence Dambach, age 50, was a volunteer member of the Washington Engine Company No. 2. He was survived by his wife and four children and lived at 40 Whitlock Lane in the city. Dambach, formerly a postman, recently started his own trucking business.
• Howard Adams, age 36, was a volunteer member of the Eagle Engine Company No. 4. He was survived by his wife, Henrietta and his six-year-old son; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Adams; and two aunts, Mrs. Genevieve Stevens and Mrs. Thomas Stevens. Adams lived at 390 Lawrie Street in the city and was an employee of the Raritan Copper Works. Many members of the Fire Department attended his funeral.

Following the tragic deaths of the two firemen and one company employee, the plant was rebuilt and expanded into a full-service petroleum refinery. The company was later absorbed into the Chevron Corporation. In 1983, the site shut down its gasoline and heating oil processing units and scaled back production to asphalt refining only. In 2012, the site was sold to Buckeye Partners who now operate a petroleum storage and marine terminal at the plant. There is no memorial marker at the site.

Commentary:

Asphalt is a black, sticky form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates used as a road surface. It is primarily composed of hydrocarbons, with minor amounts of nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen. Asphalt is obtained either from natural deposits (natural asphalt) or as a residue from the distillation of crude oil (petroleum asphalt) and is often combined with aggregates like sand, gravel, or crushed stone to form a durable mixture. Principally used as a road building material, it has other uses such as in roofing materials, coatings, floor tiling, soundproofing, waterproofing, and other building construction elements and in a number of industrial products, such as batteries.

Asphalt is considered highly flammable and will easily ignite by heat, sparks or flames. Vapors may form explosive mixtures in air and may travel to a source of ignition and flash back. Most vapors are heavier than air and will spread along the ground and collect in low or confined areas such as sewers, basements, tanks, etc. Containers may explode when heated. Liquids will float on top of water. Larger fires may be controlled using water spray, fog or regular firefighting foam. Avoid aiming straight streams or solid streams directly into the product. If regular foam is ineffective, use alcohol-resistant foam. In case of a fire involving a tank, rail car or highway tank, isolate for ½ mile in all directions. Fires involving tanks should be fought using unmanned master stream devices or monitor nozzles. If this is impossible, withdraw from the area and let the fire burn (Emergency Response Guidebook, 2024 edition).

During the early days of the oil industry, little was known about fire and explosion prevention in oil refining and storage facilities. This incident occurred at a time when the hazards of BLEVEs were not well known to firefighters. Today, firefighting protocols for dealing with a fire in a flammable liquid container emphasize maintaining safe distances, cooling vessels, and avoiding direct exposure to potential BLEVE hazards. With each disaster, the oil industry learned and improved their methods and equipment. This was partially driven by the fact that the industry was considered so risky that many insurance companies would not write fire insurance policies for refineries. Today much of the safety equipment and procedures that we see in petrochemical facilities including fire suppression systems, advanced fire detection systems, plant fire brigades with specialized foam and dry chemical fire apparatus, and employee fire safety training are a direct result of previous tragedies in oil refineries across the globe.

This incident shares similarities with an incident that occurred in an oil refinery in Philadelphia in 1901 that took the lives of three firefighters when a burning tank of benzine exploded engulfing dozens of firefighters who were injured: https://www.facebook.com/groups/192218352449074/permalink/1303721694632062/

We have attached photos of the refinery site and the incident. We have also included a detail from a 1950 Sanborn fire insurance map that shows the configuration of the refinery.

We have also attached an article reviewing foam operations from Brain Zaitz published in Fire Engineering magazine: https://www.fireengineering.com/firefighting/foam-operations-2/

Thanks to multiple media sources for the content of this article.

Honor the service of Perth Amboy Volunteer Firemen Lawrence Dambach and Howard Adams by reviewing your department’s equipment and procedures for firefighting foam operations with your crew members today.

Remember Fallen Brothers.

Get Out There And Know Your Local!!!

The plant involved in the incident was operated by the California Refining Company, a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company of California in a waterfront industrial area along the Arthur Kill, a waterway that separates New Jersey from the New York City borough of Staten Island. Originally built by the Barber Asphalt Company in 1920, the complex was located at 1200 State Street, about 2.5 miles north of the downtown Perth Amboy business district. The sprawling complex covered a 339-acre site and had petroleum refining processing equipment and multiple storage tanks. Multiple rail lines and private roadways crisscrossed the complex which also included a dockside loading facility on the adjacent Arthur Kill. The asphalt processing area contained numerous stills, process machinery, and storage tanks used to refine petroleum products into liquid asphalt. The complex was protected by a fire brigade consisting of 31 plant employees trained in flammable liquid firefighting. The brigade was equipped with two trailer-mounted 500-gpm fire pumps with 500 feet of 2 ½-inch hose. The complex was served by several private fire hydrants fed by a looped six-inch water main. A 1500-gpm fire pump equipped with a foam system was also available at the site. There were multiple private fire alarm call boxes near the asphalt plant. The asphalt storage tanks were enclosed by a 5-foot-high earthen dike designed to contain any spillage of flammable liquids.
Detail from the 1950 Sanborn fire insurance map showing the configuration of the sprawling refining complex. The asphalt plant area involved in the incident is circled in red.