Fire on the Mountain
From The Oak Ridger
March 20, 2008
John Huotari
john.huotari@oakridger.com
WINDROCK MOUNTAIN -- A severely burned Morgan County man was taken to Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, after he caught on fire near an oil well that exploded north of Oliver Springs Wednesday morning.
Jonathan Vann is in critical condition at Vanderbilt's Burn Center in Nashville, his longtime friend B.J. Phillips said early Wednesday afternoon.
One other man, 49-year-old Bobby Lloyd, managed to escape the fire's wrath but the pickup truck he was driving was destroyed.
Phillips said Vann was driving past the oil well, which had been leaking, when it exploded around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.
"He called me and told me he was on fire," Phillips said.
Phillips and his father, Benny Phillips, live less than a mile from the oil well off Cove Lane near the Morgan-Anderson county line.
They rushed to the scene.
Vann's clothes had been burned off, and he was barely able to talk, B.J. Phillips said.
"He was disoriented bad," B.J. said. "He said he was hurting real bad."
Vann was first taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center at Knoxville, before being transferred to Nashville.
Lloyd, a self-employed construction worker, said he was driving by in his Ford utility truck when the well exploded. He heard "one big boom" and saw "one big ball of fire."
"It was running down the road," said Lloyd, who lives west of the well. "Me and three other workers ran down the road and got away from it."
Though his truck was destroyed, Lloyd said he and the three well workers are all right.
As of Wednesday afternoon, giant orange flames continued to shoot up 60 feet above the exploded well, a thick black smoke plume boiling into a gray overcast sky.
A smaller fire burned in a nearby retaining pond.
A heavy rain fell at times but appeared to have little effect on the fires. Neighbors gathered on porches and huddled under umbrellas, watching the flames.
Up to 85 emergency personnel responded, including many from across Roane and Anderson counties. A command center was set up at Cove Road Primitive Baptist Church.
Scott Stout, Roane County Office of Emergency Management's assistant director, said the main fire was burning natural gas coming out of the oil well.
By Wednesday evening, Wild Well Control Inc., of Houston, Texas, had arrived to help extinguish the flames.
However, it could take two to three days to do so with equipment shipped in from Texas.
"Our main concern is protecting the residents," Stout said.
He said the cause of the fire had not been determined, but the well had been leaking gas.
There were reports that the fire might have started when a car passed through oil that had leaked from the well, Stout said.
B.J. Phillips said the oil well had been leaking since 1 p.m. Tuesday.
"It's been sounding like a jet engine for two days now," added Eric Gallaher, who lives next to the church.
A few neighborhood residents said the well had been spewing a lime-green substance into the air and onto the ground, and oil and gas had leaked onto the road. Prior to Wednesday's fire, resident Tim Braden said he couldn't see through his windshield when he drove past the well because the lime-green substance coated the glass.
After the well exploded, a small group of neighbors used tractors, loaders, backhoes and 'dozers to cut through grass and dig fire trenches, resident Frank Russell said.
"We kept the oil away from everything," Gallaher said.
But the roaring fire was hot, Russell noted. "I got within 50 yards and it was just too intense," he said.
Stout said 25 nearby homes were evacuated, and people within a half-mile of the fire had been asked to stay indoors.
Some people went to stay with family and friends, while others went to an emergency shelter set up at Norwood Middle School in Oliver Springs. The school had been closed for spring break.
Stout said emergency crews had set up booms in Wrights Creek to prevent oil from flowing downstream in nearby waterways.
He said the oil company will have to pay for extinguishing the fire, and he said Dan Potts is the operating manager of the oil well.
The Oak Ridger was not able to reach Potts for comment by press time on Wednesday.
Lloyd said he hasn't seen anything like the well fire before.
And, he added, "I hope not to see anything like that again."
John Huotari can be contacted at (865) 220-5533.
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