ROARING GAS WELL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17436, 7 April 1931, Page 7

ROARING GAS WELL

IMPERILS BIG AREA 40,000,000 C. FT. IN 24 HOURS CORNING (N.Y.), Feb. 21. A new gas well, north of Tioga (Pa.), "blew itself in" late yesterday with a tremendous roar, and last night gas was whistling from it at the rate ol 40 GOO,CCO cubic feet per 24 hours, with a force heard three miles away, and under pressure so great the gas was showing white. Fourteen men working at the well barely escaped with their lives, racing the gas that swirled over the country - side under pressure of a "low ceiling which prevented it from escaping upward. ... ~ Last night guards were patrolling tlie gas-coveded area, for experts said a spark or a lighted match might cause, a terrific explosion. No one was allowed to approach within several miles of the well. . . .Meanwhile, men who will have to bridle the well are discussing how best to do that job. It was said men would have to work masked, and that the force of the flow was such that it would require special methods. One suggestion was that concrete should be forced into the well under pressure m the hope of sealing it entirely, then other wells could be sunk nearby, With the drillers prepared to harness the gas promptly. The drillers drove their bit 6ft. into the gas bearing sand strata on Wednesday then "choked" the well while waiting for the arrival of pipes to encase' and harness it. It had been flowing at the rate of a million feein dav and then increased to a 4,000,000 mine foot flow before yesterday s blast. Geolo'dsts said it was the biggest well east of the Mississippi River, and that only one well in this territory, one at McKeesport (Pa.), ever surpassed it.