Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-29
RELIEF RUSHED TO SCENE.
Men and Equipment Seek TO Quench
Oil Well Fire.
BY the Associated press.


BY the Associated Press.
GLADEWATER, Tex, April 29.-Men
and equipment were fUsneo to the Sin
clair No. l Cole well, niles southeast
of here, today in an effort to su5due
the mighty roaring caldron that burned
seven men to death last night.
Two other men who were pulled from
the inferno after it had become iCnlted
were near death in a Longviev hos.
pltal. 1t was possible others had died
in the blaze, but operators were hope
full all had been accounted for. The
dead: Bob Murdoch, Orlando, Okla
Bill Haroun, Canadian, Okla; George
Albright, Oklahoma City, Okla; Roy
Blankenship, Tulsa, Okla. Bill Nc
Casland sr., Wincna, Okla: Bill Nc
Cas'and. jr, Wincna, Okla; Virgil
Volt, Hunter, Okla.
Two Others Dying.
John Keys, 80, of Oklahoma City
and Frank Fiouck, IS, cf WoodfieId
Okla, were in the hospital at Longview
in dying condition.
The gigantic geyser of fire cracked
and leaEd undated, gathering mo-
mentum through the night, lighting
the pine forests for many miles. Its
heat became intensified as thousands
of barrels of crude oil were Tapped up
by the shooting flames.
1t appeared likely that several days
w-uid be necessary for experts to place
nitroglycerine to blow out the fire.
While the oil fire snorted and popped,
buddies OF Murdoch and Haroun, whose
bodies were cremated in the whitening
caldron, kept a sort of wake over their
ashes. Around campfires they talked CT
the agonizing scene as men died in the
fire and related incidents of heroiSm.
There was the case of Driller Muir
dock, caught on the floor of the rig,
who thought of his pal, Virgil Volt.
second driller, and made mad rush to
extricate him from the flames.
Last Act Described.
Pat Massey It'd of that incident. He
was standing on the runway when the
tiny spark Of undetermined origin set
the funeral pyre. Only minute before
Murdoch had handed him his watch
and said, pat, hold this for me, !
don't want to get oil on it, Murdoch
walked back down the runway to the
floor Of the rig and never came out.
Whether Murdoch ct his pal, Wolff,
off the rig no one knew, but they picked
up VOLTS charred, blackened body five
hours later far from the fire.
There was the wife Of Murdoch.
whose ashes still we're whirled skyward
by the monster, with her 13-month-
old babe in one arm and the 3-yea,-old
girl by a hand From her front
veranda, the roustab- uts said. she could
see the reflection of the sky through
the night.
All of the men who persisted were
young, save one-McCasland. sr., who
died with his son. Most of them were
under 80, all of them married and sew
eral had families.
Fourteen on Job at Time.
There were Ia men on the job when
the fire gushed forth from the well,
which was brought in Sunday night
and had been running wild for 80 hours.
Glenn Haroun, field Superintendent,
was standing near his brother Bill one
of the drillers burned to death. He
rushed to aid his other men. as some
we're able to run from the derrick floor.
Other wells in the new East Texas field
were in no danger unless gales should
blow and set the pine forests aflre.
The closest well is one-half mile away.
CALL FOR CREW TOO LATE.