Fan Short-Circuit Blamed for 2-Day Oil Well Blaze

A short in an electric fan used to disperse fumes from pumping equipment was being blamed for an oil well fire that entered its second day in Ventura County, causing up to $5 million damage.

Oil workers had been working with a diesel-powered pump shortly before the fire broke out Thursday in an oil field in the Los Padres National Forest 15 miles north of Fillmore, seriously injuring one man and igniting a tanker truck and an 800-barrel storage tank.

“Apparently when they went to turn on the fan to blow away the fumes, the fan shorted out,” said fire dispatcher Liz Pickles of the Ventura County Fire Department.

A crew of specially trained firefighters flown in from Texas prepared Friday to drain 11 storage tanks containing 800 barrels of oil threatened by the fire.

Officials were estimating Friday that it could take up to a week to douse the blaze.

Thursday, officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had feared that flames or toxic fumes would force the evacuation of three Andean condor chicks from an experimental nesting area 2 miles from the blaze. But as of Friday the chicks were not in any danger, Pickles said. A dike around the burning well, meanwhile, has kept the blaze from spreading to another oil well nearby and to forest land, but officials cautioned that the threat of an explosion remained.

“As long as it’s burning, it could blow,” Pickles said.