Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1861-05-07
Explosion of Oil WeiI--L Loss of Life and
Frightfui Scenes

Explosion of Oil Loss of Life AMI
Frightfui Scenes.
1t has already been briefly mentioned that al
oil we'll in Warren county, Pa, took fire few
days ago and exploded with trightful effect, caus
ing the loss of eighteen lives A letter gives The
following additional particulars l50A -s
A we'll which had been drilled over two hun
dred feet by Hawley 81 Merrick. had struck oil
but the yield being less than expected. the pump
ing was abandoned and drilling recommended
Over one hundred feet further were drilled. when
at half past five on Wednesday evening. a sud
den rush of oil through the five inch and a hal
Tubing, threw out the drills and gushed up in
the air forty feet abOyethe surface of the ground
At the least computation it was throwing from
seventy to one hundred barrels an hour. Above
this mass of oil, the gas Of bezne rose in cloud,
for fifty or sixty feet. As soon as the oil COM
menced gushing forth, all the fires of the engines
in the neighborhood were immsdiatelv extin-
guished
At about balfpa eleven, as a large number
of men and boys were around the well engaged
in saving the oil, the gas from the well, which
had spread in every direction, took fire from the
engine OF well over four Hundred rods distant,
when in second the whole air was in flame,
with crash and a roar like discharges from a
park OF artillery. As soon as the gas took fire,
the head of the jet of oil was in furious blaze,
and falling like water from fountain over q
space one hundred feet in diameter, each drop
came down blazing globe of boiling oil. IN
stanty the ground was flame, constantly in
creased and augmented by the falling OIL AT
once scene of ludescribable horror took place.
Scores were thrown fiat, and for a. distance of
twenty feet, and numbers horribly burned rush :
ed blazing from the hell of misfortune, shrieking
and screaming q their anguish ssla11io as
just within the circle of the flames could be
seen tour bodies boiling in the seething oil, and
one man who had been digging ditch to con-
vey away the oil to a lower part of the ground.
was killed as he dug, and could be seen as he tell
over the handle of his spade, roasting in the
fierce element. Mr.. H R. Rouse, of the firm OF
Rouse, Mitchell 4 Brown, of the village of En-
terprlse, Warren county, gentleman largely in
terested IN wells in this locality. and whose in
come from them amounted to 81 900 day, was
| standing near the pit and was blown twenty feet
by the explosion. He got up and ran about ten
or fifteen feet farther, and was dragged out by
two men and conveyed to shanty some distance
from the we'll. When he arrived not vestige
| OF clothing was left upon him except his stock
! ings and boots. His hair9was burned off as well
as his finger nails, his ears and his eyelids, while
the balls of his eyes were crisped up to nothing
| HoSS III tulS COuulGlOu liz uV6u Ulu6 nOQrS, maze
his will, leaving $l00,0 to the poor of Warren
county; the same amount to repair the roads oil
| Warren county, and $500 year to his father,
his only living relation, for life. He died, how
ever, without signing the will. si-r $50
] The bodies of five other men were recovered
aud recognized. In addition there are the skel-
etons OF five others visible within the circle o
flame, and as many are missing strangers, who
came to witness the operations of the wells. Ii
is supposed that a number OF others have been
burned to powder, close by the mouth of the
we'll. Some thirty -four were wounded. tl
At the time of the explosion, everything in
the ghborhOod-sixty3 OF seventy rods--took
fire, and shanties, derricks, engine houses anC
| dwellings, were at once in hanes The boiler o
Dobbs' well, eighty rods from the original fire
blew up with a tremendous explosion. killing III
stantly the engineer, Wesley Skinner, adding an
other intensity TO The evenings horrors. AT this
time the whole air was on fire. The Jet oil rush
ing up forty feet was almost a pillar of livid
fame, while the gas above it to the distance Of
d hundred feet was flashing, exploding, dashing
toward the heavens, and apparently licking the
clouds with its furious tongues of heat a., !
| All this time, during this tremendous combus
ton, the sounds OF the explosions and burning
were so tremendous and continuous that thew
could be compared to nothing but the rushing OF
a hurricance or tornado through forest The
heat OF the fire was so intense that no one could
approach within 150 feet without scorching their
skin or garments. 1t was the most frightful and
yet the grsEdest pyrotechnical display ever
vouchsated to human being.
| On Friday morning the Oil was still rushing
up, on fire, with the same regularity and speed,
throwing, it was calculated, at least 100 bal rels
an hour, covering an immense space with flaming
OLA loss to the proprietors of the we'll of from
$4,000 to $25, 900 daily. No human power can
extinguish the flames, and the oil must burn on
until the we'll is exhausted. No pen can de-
scribe its firceness, no tongue describe the magni-
| tude of its horrors. Thousands of spectators
| visit the scene every day. 1t seems the earth is
really on fire, and it's elements about to melt with
fervent heat. The flames were, at last accounts,
still ascending to the height of eighty feet.