PARKER, Charles O. c1869-1929

PARKER

Posted By: K. L. Kittleson
Date: 2/18/2008 at 20:19:37

Funeral services were held today, Sept. 23, 1929, for Charles O. Parker, age 60, who died on Saturday, Sept. 21, 1929 in an explosion and fire at his gas station on 4th Street in St. Ansgar, Iowa.

Business in St. Ansgar was suspended today between 1 and 2:30 p.m. while services were being conducted for Mr. Parker, who managed the gasoline service station. His body was badly mangled and burned in the fire.

Investigation of the wreckage, which will not be cleared until after the formal investigation tomorrow, indicated the explosion occurred in the concrete chamber in the basement, as all remaining fragments projected outward from that point.

Of the several probable causes advanced unofficially for the terrific filling station blast here last Saturday which snuffed out the lives of three persons, including the proprietor of the station, the one which best seems to explain an explosion followed by devastating fire is that gasoline fumes were ignited by the spark from an electric motor.

The filling station occupied the site of what formerly had been a business building with a basement. When the filling station was erected, the basement was left, and the two large gasoline tanks were placed within the walls instead of being buried underground at a distance from the station as is the case in most stations. The station, one of the first erected here, had been in operation nine years, most of that time with Parker as manager. Following the blast, it was discovered that both tanks remained intact and full of gasoline.

More likely it is believed than that the air compressor tank exploded, is that one of the gasoline tanks had a small leak and that when the mixture of air and gasoline became just right outside the tank, a spark from the compressor motor ignited the mixture.

Parker moved to St. Ansgar in the spring of 1920, from a farm between St. Ansgar and Otranto. He had owned a filling station at Fourth and Washington streets for a number of years.

(Based on articles from the Waterloo Evening Courier; Waterloo, Iowa; Monday, September 23, 1929)

Gas Station Explosion Story
 

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