1 Hurt in Oil Well Blast on Balboa Peninsula

Natural gas from an abandoned oil well fueled an explosion and fire on the Balboa Peninsula Friday afternoon that seriously burned a city employee and spewed a 50-foot geyser of flames, saltwater and crude oil, forcing 200 people from their homes for about five hours.

The explosion occurred at about 2:50 p.m. as private contractors and municipal employees were capping the city’s last abandoned well beneath Balboa Boulevard and 44th Street, an area surrounded by quaint resort homes adjacent to Newport Bay.

Newport Beach police requested that beachgoers avoid the Balboa Peninsula today. Because of cleanup operations, no access from Coast Highway to Balboa Boulevard will be allowed until at least 6 p.m. today, and Balboa will be closed between 38th and 46th streets until at least the same time, police said.

Immediately after the explosion, firefighters and city employees first sandbagged street sewers to prevent the crude from entering the bay. But as water began to flood the street and lap at the doors of nearby homes, the sewers were opened and U.S. Coast Guard crews used floating booms to contain the crude flowing into the bay.

George Murdock, 24, an employee with the city’s General Services Department, suffered second-degree burns over 20% of his body when the first blast of flames exploded out of the well. He was taken to the UCI Medical Center burn unit. A hospital spokeswoman said Murdock was in satisfactory condition late Friday.

Mark Bradley, 32, chief of the Wilmington-based Cooper & Brain Co. crew hired by the city to cap the abandoned well, said there was a slight seepage of gas from the well’s 12-inch opening when the crew arrived at the scene shortly before 10 a.m. It was not considered serious, he said, until crude began bubbling to the surface about 10 minutes before the explosion.

Bradley was standing on the base of an 80-foot derrick about five feet above the well when it exploded, but he escaped unharmed. “It just took off,” Bradley said. “I jumped off the thing (derrick) and ran about 15 feet into the street when I turned around to see if anybody got away.”

George Zebal, a consulting geologist on the project, said: “There was a big whoosh and the flames just shot up. Flames, crude and saltwater.”

The flames scorched one side of a two-story, unoccupied home at 204 44th St. that was adjacent to the derrick and crude was splattered over another home behind it and several cars parked along the boulevard. When the blaze was finally put out at about 7:35 p.m., Balboa Boulevard was left covered with mud and heavy splotches of oil.

Newport Beach Fire Department spokesman Gene Begnell said he did not know what it would cost the city to clean up the mess. Officials also said the cause of the explosion has not been determined.

Fearing that extinguishing the flames would send undetected natural gas spilling throughout the neighborhood, firefighters decided against trying to put out the fire. Instead, the 27 city firefighters sprayed water from four hoses along the side of the house and on the towering derrick, which they feared would collapse.

Capt. Mike Boyle, 28, of San Clemente, a member of the county Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials team, said the decision was made to attempt to funnel heavy mud from four huge tankers through a pipe and into the well while the fire was still burning. The technique was dangerous, he said, because “we’ve never done this sort of thing before.”

Boyle and Hazardous Materials team members Scott McDairmant and Louis Blankenship, along with John Wayne Airport firefighters Bill Wilson, Mike Overton and Mike Consalvo, put on silver fire-resistant suits and made five assaults on the burning well.

As about a dozen firefighters with hoses sprayed water on the blaze, Boyle stood directly over the six-foot opening around the blazing well and attached the piping from one of the four mud tankers.

Flames Died Down Immediately

The flames began to die down immediately after mud began flowing into the well. Ten minutes later it was extinguished.

Boyle said the fire-resistant suit prevented him from feeling the intense heat. “You just see the flames hit you and roll off,” he said.

The difficult part, Boyle said, was leaning over the six-foot hole and attaching the 60-pound pip to the well opening. “With the flames and the water, you can’t see what you’re doing,” Boyle said. “You have to feel your way along.”

The last assault, which involved opening the valve enabling the mud to flow into the well, was the most dangerous. “That’s when we had to get our faces right in there,” McDairmant said.

Paradoxically, the explosion took place as Newport Beach was attempting to seal off, and thus make safe, the last abandoned oil well in the city limits. Four other wells in the immediate vicinity were capped in 1973.

Drilled in 1924

The well which exploded Friday was drilled in 1924 by the South Basin Oil Co. and abandoned in 1931. “The company went defunct in 1932 and all the principals are dead,” geologist Zebal said.

Residents in the 100 and 200 blocks of 43rd, 44th, 45th and 46th streets in the vicinity of Balboa Boulevard were evacuated by police.

The Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross set up a temporary shelter at Ensign Junior High School, 2000 Cliff Drive. But nobody showed up at the school.

“This is not surprising in a wealthy area,” Red Cross spokesman Harry Huggins said. “Also, our general experience is that only about 10% of an evacuated group actually seeks shelter. The rest go to friends.”

City officials said a major worry Friday was about oil pollution to Newport Bay. Balboa Peninsula is a narrow split of land that separates the Pacific Ocean from Newport Bay. The erupting oil well, situated only a few hundred feet from the bay, was sending thick strands of crude down storm drains.

Serious Bay Damage Unlikely

“It’s likely that small amounts will get into the bay, but it doesn’t look like it’ll cause too much damage,” said Dave Harshbarger, marine director for the city of Newport Beach.

However, by nightfall, slicks of oil were showing up in bay waters. Police Officer Trent Harris said the U.S. Coast Guard was helping the city by trying to contain oil slicks with floating booms.

Newport Beach City Manager Robert Wynn, in a phone interview, said it is not unusual that the well was not permanently capped when it was abandoned. “In those days, people just walked away and left wells that were no longer producing,” Wynn said.

He said that Newport Beach, with the help of the state, had in recent years pinpointed all abandoned wells that still needed permanent capping and sealing. Five were identified, and four had been sealed in recent years. The one at Balboa and 44th was the last to be capped, he added.