The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1865-08-10
The Burning of an Oil Well-A 200 Barrel
Fountain of Fire.
Correspondence OF the Chicago Tribune
DIN LIZ. D. A Il

many ladies, (for the summer tourists are
on their travels undeterred by the difficult
ties that throng the way to Pit Hole)-while
the workmen at the various wells in process
of sinking were, many of them, still busy
while the monster fountains of oil whose
fame has already filled the world were pour
ing their steady flow, and little groups were
clustered about enthusiastically sound of
an explosion filed the welkin and startled
every ear. 1t was not simply decorating, |
but rather heavy, muf1led conclusion of |
the air, heard at distance with nearly the |
same distinctness as close at hand.
Dread at once took possession of every |
listener. The warning is impressed on the |
minds of all, at the very threshold of oil
dom, that fire is dangerous guest to be at
large in this section.
was half mile from the locality of the
explosion. 1t was rumored instantly, and
the word passed from mouth til mouth, that
the United States well was on fire. When
that event takes place, and its thirty-six
thousand barrels of oil are poured out in a
great conhagration, it will realize something
OF the fear that sat upon all of us until we
found the disaster was not SO located.
dark and heavy volume of smoke, ris-
ing grandly up i'll a solid bank, was our
guide to the scene of the accident. AS we
ran, the company swelled, until our CONVEX
gent lines Of approach gave to the spectacle
a throng of startled gazers such as none of
us had dreamed were our companions
among these oil mountains.
Well No. II, so called from the number
of its lease on the United States farm, had
taken fire. 1t struck oil in the morning,
two hundred parrel flow, and was now be-
fore us cataract of liquid fire.
AS we approached we met group bear
ing to place OF safety blackened and
grooming victim of the casualty. He had
been overtaken by the fiery horror, essayed
to escape, and i'll his frantic alarm had
stumbled and fallen prone on his face in the
seething flames. A moment later would
have sealed his doom, but help was instant
ly extended to him and little examination
showed that beyondmere surface burns he
is in no danger of permanent injury.
There were others that were more or less
harmed in similar manner, who happily
escaped with slight injuries Finding that
no help was needed by the suffering, beyond
that already extended, we had leisure to
gaze upon the extraordinary spectacle now
before our eyes.
A paragraph as to the history of the we'll
itself. 1t was sunk by a few associated par
ties of small means, generally former EN-
ployees on already successful wells The en-
gineer himself was one-eigth owner. The
enterprise had began to chill their hopes, for
the depth proposed had been passed, and yet
no signs Of oil,
| On Tuesday night the engineer, full of
gloom, offered his share to visitor for ST.
900 cash.
The visitor did not see it. He didn't
want to buy into a dry we'll Within very
few working hours after this conversation
oil was struck, and gave handsome flow,
increasing till its full and frequent jets came
strongly from the q inch pipe, and experts
pronounced it a two hundred barrel well,
with promise of increasing its yield.
The engineers visitor of the night before
now came hastily round with an offer of
S25, 900. This time, however, the engin-
eer did not see it,
But the well had no tankage ready. An
effort was made to conduct the oil across
another lease to the tanks of the Homestead
well, but this failed from inability to COM
plete arrangements as to the division of
product.
To stop flowing we'll, even for an in
slant, will never do in oildom. The only
recourse was to let the precious fluid run to
waste. 1t was delivered through a two and
a half inch pipe standing about ten feet out
Of the ground, with short horizontal arm
to diroct the stream outward from the der
rick. This oriice opened in another direc-
ton from Pit Hole Creek, which was about
| e.
The oil thus discharged to waste, there
fore, struck the ground beyond and above
the derrick and engine buildings, and found
its way in rude trench around them down
into the creek, and passed away on its olea-
ginous current.
This had been continued for several hours
and the visitors had been numerous about
the new we'll all day. had myself viiited
( it twice The creek below was covered with
the waste oil, and indeed at no time free
from ''SUrtace Sh0a0."
Suddenly as the fire sweeps the dry prai
RE grass, but more swiftly as dealing with
more highly inAamable element, wave
of fire rolled up the creek. How it became
ignited below is not known, but more speed
lily than these words can be written the de-
vourer had swept up the bank, filled the
trench with fire, and sent its fierce flames
leaping from the ground to meet in mid air
the jets from the pipe This was the explo-
sion we heard-the rush of the red dragon
on its prey.
The scene that followed was indescriba-
ble
The derrick and engine buildings were
swept away like finder. The smoke from
the volcano OF liquid rose in dense masses
In the air, carrying high up among its
pltchy volumes the wreathed tongues and
spirals OF flame streaming out and following
in their flight the volatile gases evolved by
the confagration.
Under the intense heat the tall pipe, near
ly red hot, bent over until it leaned at an
angle of forty-fve degrees, ard there spout
ed its intermittent jets, while the flaming
fluid, no longer seeking the trench, ran a
lake of fire, stretching broadly upon the
surface and pouring down the slope into
the creek.
You will not need to be told that the
danger was most imminent to other wells,
and instant and Jealous exertions were
made by employees, owners and volunteers,
to stay the destruction. Happily, their
efforts were successful, though not until the
night had waned, and the night shadows
under the hills had BEEN through hours of
anxious toll chased afar by the lurid splen-
dor of the fiery fountain.
Talk not of pyrotechnics to me, after
this !! | shall never forget that dusky cur
tain of smoke, thrown against the sk y with
the flames in mid air, two hundred fee:
above US, at play amid it's folds.
You will now only need, however, to be
told how the fire was extingushed. as well
for your information, on curious as ON eco
nomical grounds. Many were the plans
suggested, and tried. 4 man rushed up
with wet blanket and offered, for one thou
sand dollars to fasten it over the mouth of
the pipe.
What was done, was to excavate trenches
to hold and restrain the wider progress of