A photo of the Berlin fire from the Town of Berlin website.BERLIN, N.Y. - Wednesday marks 50-years since a propane tanker exploded in the Rensselaer County town of Berlin, killing a number
of people and burning a hole in the town's center.
It was July 25, 1962 when a tractor-trailer carrying a 7,000 gallon tanker of propane failed to navigate a sharp right
turn on Plank
Road in Brunswick. It instead cut to the left and
slammed into a tree,
rolled down a hill, and
exploded.
Ten people were killed as a result, nine people including the truck driver, Robert Lucas of Pennsylvania, died from burns some that day and others within days after the explosion. Eleven homes were destroyed, and many more heavily damaged, in the explosion.
According to Berlin's town historian, the tenth person,
Mabel Wager, died of a heart attack in her sleep. She is traditionally
considered among the victims and is
even
listed on the memorial headstone that is in the front of the Center Berlin
Cemetery on Route 22.
A memorial service will be held to observe the anniversary Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at the First
Baptist Church on 15 North Main Street. The
original First
Baptist Church was destroyed in the explosion and
eventually rebuilt.
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