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After I wrote in 2022 about the Doraville Triangle Refinery fire that began on April 6, 1972, those who remembered the fire shared their memories. The fire was an event that was still fresh in many minds even after 50 years. The fire began when an overfilled tank reached the pilot light of a Doral Circle home causing an explosion. The explosion followed a ruptured line back to the refinery, igniting three storage tanks. (Atlanta Constitution, April 7, 1972, “Killer gasoline fire rages into 2nd day”)
Photo from DeKalb County Fire and Rescue
The explosion shook nearby homes, including that of Hoss Warbington. He could see the flames from his home one mile from the fire. Some people experienced being knocked out of their beds from the explosion.
The April 7, 1972 Atlanta Constitution reported on the actions of Braves pitcher Pat Jarvis in an article titled, “Jarvis strikes out to awake, evacuate.” He was awakened that morning by his sister-in-law calling to say flames were in her back yard and quickly drove to her house. When it was announced on radio that people were being evacuated, Jarvis started knocking on doors and helping people get out.
Bonnie Smith Nichols could see the fire and smoke from her family’s home at the corner of Vermack Road and Chamblee Dunwoody Road, known today as Donaldson-Bannister Farm. Gail Ferrell could see the fire from her home, the caretaker’s cottage at Murphey Candler Park.
Kathie Maybury Copeland and her family were evacuated from their Winters Chapel Road home. Jeff Glaze lived where Winters Chapel Road and Peeler Road come together, about three miles from the fire, and could see the thick smoke.
Students riding on a bus on I-285, returning from a Chamblee High School boys baseball game, saw the fire. Jill Harwood Gonyea and Charlie Bryant were among those on the bus. Gonyea recalls, “The sky was ablaze, and we could feel the heat from it as we drove past.” Tony Martin, a Chamblee High School coach, lived about a mile from the refinery. Flames and smoke were visible from his home.
Memories of the fire come from people living all around Chamblee and other nearby communities. It was visible from local schools including Montgomery Elementary School and Nancy Creek Elementary. Students saw smoke from the windows of their schools.
Photo from DeKalb County Fire and Rescue
DeKalb historian and author Vivian Price Saffold covered the fire for the DeKalb News/Sun. She recalls “hearing the forceful and amazingly calm fire chief reassure a roomful of terrified citizens” and “standing by an exhausted and tearful Mayor Jesse Norman.”
A list of assisting fire departments was printed in a Triangle Refineries full page ad in the June 1972 edition of the DeKalb New Era. They included nearby Fulton and Cobb County and 23 other Georgia fire departments. New York Fire Department of Brookside and the Holt Fire Department of Michigan also came to the aid of Doraville.
Twelve days after the fire, Doraville citizens gathered at city hall to hear what caused the fire and what measures were being implemented to prevent future fires. DeKalb County Fire Marshall Eugene Guerry said human error was behind the overfilled tank. Measures proposed to prevent future fires included 24-hour supervision of the tanks, automatic cutoffs to prevent overfill, and holding ponds beneath the tanks. (Atlanta Constitution, April 19, 1972, “Human Error Blamed for Doraville Tank Fire”)
The stories of firefighters on the scene in 1972 will be my last post on the Doraville Triangle Refinery fires. That will be next week.