Oil well fire call false alarm
Oil well fire call false alarm
4 October 2007
published by www.texarkanagazette.com
A report of an oil well fire Wednesday in Miller County put emergency responders on the run, but the incident was soon downgraded to a grass fire.
Terry Purvis, coordinator of the Miller County Office of Emergency Management, said the report of an oil well fire on County Road 41 came in shortly before noon. However, the call turned out to be a false alarm.
Purvis said either a small amount of oil or carbon inside one of the wells surfaced and ignited the grass.
Some type of product in the tank caught the grass on fire, he said. There was never any danger, and it appears the well is working fine.
The oil wells do contain hydrogen sulfide, a gas that is extremely poisonous, but that product was not what ignited the grass, Purvis said.
He said he was pleased with the response from the Miller County Volunteer Fire Department and Office of Emergency Management volunteers.
We are pleased the response took less than three minutes. The sheriffs department got the call out immediately and everybody responded very quickly, he said.
