Kern County Fire Put Out by Water Seeping Into Well

One of the biggest natural gas fires in California history went out on its own Tuesday morning after water began seeping into the gas, creating a mixture that was no longer combustible, authorities said.

“Water began seeping into the well, which happens all the time in oil fields,” said Deputy Chief Steve Gage of the Kern County Fire Department, which has been monitoring the Lost Hills blaze that burned for more than two weeks.

The well fire had been expected to burn for several months. But the five-man crew from Boots and Coots International, a Texas-based company hired to handle the blaze, now expects to finish its work by the end of the week.

Company firefighters will spend the next few days attempting to cap the well and redirect the gas into a ground pit, Gage said.

It actually would have been safer for Boots and Coots workers if the fire was still burning, Gage said, because the firefighters must now contend with deposits of crude oil still in the ground.

Attempts to reignite the well failed.

“When the flame is burning, it’s burning off all the gas and oil coming out of the hole,” Gage said. “But now a burnable mixture could build up. If the fire accidentally reignites, it could be dangerous to the men working nearby.”

The well, 45 miles northwest of Bakersfield and within view of Interstate 5, burst into a spectacular fireball Nov. 23. Seventeen workers had fled moments before a blowout preventer failed at the well--which, at more than 3 1/2 miles in depth, is by far the deepest in California.

The blaze spat a steady stream of 200-foot-high flames visible for 20 miles.