Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1902 — FLAMES RAGE IN OIL. [ARTICLE]

FLAMES RAGE IN OIL.

FIRE DEVASTATES PART OF BEAUMONT FIELD. Property Loss Estimated at •100,000, and May Be Much Greater —Entire District in Danger of DestructionMany Wells and Tanks Are Burned. Fire In the Beaumont, Texas, cil field destroyed a large number of derricks and several pumping plants and thousands of barrels of oil. It was reported that two lives were lost. The flames started in waste oil along the Texas and Sabine tracks, destroying a long trestle before they were communicated to a number of buge settling tanks containing thousand* Bl barrels of petroleum, which exploded, scattering the fire over a wide area. The ground was saturated with oil and Mttle could be done to stop the progress of the flames. At Gladys, which is the station at the oil field, the whole of the Keith-Ward tract, embracing several acres and containing a large number es wells, was burned over. The fire then reached the big Higgins tank No. 2, from whicn the oil ceased to flow, but burned inside the tank. Mounting in tall columns of flame, the ail gushers burned fiercely. Dense clouds of smoke enveloped the Keith-Ward tract, but here and there the streaks of blaze could be distinguished in the awesome view. The loss was first estimated at 8100,000, but it is believed this figure will be largely increased. On Spindle Top Heights, which is about four miles from Beaumont, there are more than two score oil spouters, many of them gushing 100,000 barrels qf crude oil a day. These wells and their tanks, etc., are valued at 8300,000,000. Some of the wells are so close together that the timbers of their derricks nearly touch. From Spindle Top the oil is sent to Port Arthur either through pipe lines or in tank cars. The production from this district is said to exceed that of any other oil field ever discovered, not excepting Russia's great wells.