A BURNING OIL-WELL.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 13 (Supplement)

A BURNING OIL-WELL.

STUFFING rr OUT. I \ five-ton steel cap, like a giant candle-snuffer, was used recently"to put out a burning oil-well, near Los Angele,. we are told by John F Lodge. > w in "Popular Science Monthly INeNv York. February). He say*:— ••Whatever its cause, a flaming pillar of oil. hot enough to melt a dernck» steel, 'is not a pretty thing to put out. Vet engineers have dared to attack tlie»e fires, with sensational succe?-. One of their recent triumphs, oduly enough. lia_ been just half a mile from the o the latest oil fire, where a novel system of putting out an oil blaze recened a spectacular demonstration. '•For eight weeks a freak fire 1 aged about what had once been tne dernck of Gettv No. 13, in the Santa 1 e Springfield. Dense smoke billowed from the flood of seething, flaming oil, while above roared a smokeless jet of fiery gas. Advancing behind steel shields to screen them from the heat, firefighters approached the terrific blaze. After a brief perspiring survey, they decided to try a desperate experiment to siiun it out. like a giant candle. . . '•First, a sapping project reminiscent of those of the World War was carried out. Under cover of the shields tunnellers burrowed into the earth and due an underground shaft two hundred feet long to pierce the main casing. Through it, sixty feet beneath the ground, quantities of gas and oil were diverted and the force of the burning jet diminished enough for the daring attempt. , "To snuff out the 'candle, th» men chose a five-ton cap of steel that looks like an inverted funnel. Its top is a stack with a huge valve, while at t.ie wide-mouthed base is another pipe, with a valve, to lead off unburned oil. "Tractors and a daring crew popped this cap over the burning well. Instantly the funnel stack became a flair,espouting chimney. A turn of the wheel in the stack, and the flames went out —the pipe was plugged and the tire smothered. A hoarse command, and the valve on the lower pipe was opened in time to save the whole five-ton tap trom being Mown off bv the accumulated pressure. Harmless oil poured out into a pit. "The fire was out: '•Often nitroglvcerin i# used by the men who extinguish oilwell fires. Charges of explosives are dropped into the blaze and exploded, literally blowing the fire out.'