INFERNO IN BUSY TUNNEL; 1 DIED, MORE THAN 60 HURT

A truck illegally hauling 80 drums of a restricted chemical from Jersey City to Manhattan triggered a fire inside the Holland Tunnel - blistering the tiled interior of the busy Hudson River crossing.

The blaze started about 3,000 feet from the New Jersey side at a depth of roughly 80 to 90 feet.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the tunnel, said: "Firemen entered the eastbound tube from the New Jersey entrance and worked their way through two lanes of parked vehicles formed by more than 100 automobiles, buses and trucks."

More than 60 people were hurt in the historic disaster on May 13, 1949, and a New York City Fire Department battalion chief, Gunther E. Beake, died three months later from the effects of the smoke and chemical fumes.

[Photo: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey]