FIRE EXTINGUISHED AT BURLESON CO. OIL WELL FOLLOWING BLOWOUT THAT KILLED ONE, INJURED THREE

  

Fire officials have extinguished a blaze at a Burleson County oil well, after a blowout at the site Wednesday afternoon killed a contractor and sent three others to the hospital.

Representatives from Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy said the fire at the well site on County Road 127 near Deanville was put out Thursday afternoon. Air monitoring equipment showed “no risk to public health and the environment”.

The company has not provided an update on the status of the three people flown to hospitals in Austin and Houston. It has also not disclosed the identity of the contractor who was killed.  According to the Burleson County Sheriff’s Office, Chesapeake would be the one to release the names of the worker killed and those who were injured.

First responders were initially called Wednesday afternoon around 3:30 p.m. to the fire. Responding agencies included Burleson County law enforcement and fire departments, as well as the College Station Fire Department’s hazmat unit.  No evacuations were ordered, but County Road 127 was temporarily closed after the explosion.

Chesapeake personnel, along with oilfield emergency response specialist Boots and Coots, continue their work to secure the well. The Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s regulator of the oil and natural gas industry, has sent inspectors to the site.

Records from the Railroad Commission show Columbia Gas Development originally drilled wells on the property in 1980 and 1993. Over the past two and a half decades, ownership of the oil lease has changed at least five times.  Chesapeake took over ownership of the lease after it closed a $4 billion deal last February to purchase Houston oil company Wildhorse Resources.

Investigating the incident is the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), who says their investigation could take up to six months to complete.