New York Daily Tribune

The Fire on Pit Hole Creek—Burning of an Oil Well.

Correspondence of The Cleveland Herald.

The intelligence sent you by special telegram concerning the great fire last night, was so unsatisfactory that I avail myself of the earliest moment this morning to write you a more extended account. Yesterday morning, about 10 o'clock, a new well that had been tubed the day before on the Holmden Farm, and on lot 1, near the northern line of the farm, began to be pumped. It was situated on the West side of Pit Hole Creek, between it and the "second bottom." After 50 minutes pumping the well began to yield at the rate of 300 to 400 barrels in 24 hours. The well would have flowed that amount without further pumping one hour after they began. It is deemed advisable, however, to pump a well that begins to flow, on the doctrine that agitation does good. They had no idea what they had when they began to pump. No tank was prepared for the reception the oil consequently, pumped out upon the ground. During the day considerably over 100 barrels had been upon the ground, filling all the little pools, creeping among the grass, gliding gradually down the creek bottom, and along the bluff 15 or 20 rods. Such things had been done before, and no serious apprehensions of danger were felt.

Crowds of people visited the well during the day, for such a remarkable well was the great sensation of the day. It promised to be the largest of all the mammoths on Pit Hole. At various times there were from 50 to 100 persons present. About 7½ o'clock last night, a large number of people were present, and half a dozen were on the derrick, and others were ranged about at various distances. Your correspondent, providentially, did not happen to be of that number, but was at the moment about 80 rods away. My attention was suddenly arrested by an explosion as loud as a good-sized cannon would make. The first impression was that some blasting operation had taken place, but immediately on turning about, the scene presented was before me in all its awful grandeur. Suddenly as powder ignites, suddenly as lightning from the skies, there swept up from the earth, from an area of three-fourths of an acre of ground, which the oil had covered, a flaming, hissing, howling firespout that rose nearly 100 feet into the air, the whole fiery mass surmounted by a thick black pall of smoke, as from a hundred throated furnace. Above the high tree tops it leaped as if springing in impotent fury at the very skies.

Everybody had heard the explosion, and, in a moment, everybody saw the fiery demon overshadowing the creek. Lot No. 19 is but twelve or fifteen rods from the tanks of the famous Holmstead well, in which were thousands of barrels of oil stored away. One hundred rods further down the creek were 15,000 or 20,000 more barrels of oil stored in huge tanks, near the Frazier and Twin Wells. As the seething flames mounted upward and ran into every nook and cranny where a little pool of oil had been formed, everybody expected, in a moment, to see the whole creek bottom a boiling lake of fire.

Instantly upon the explosion the people ran in every direction, some toward the fire, others from it. Men looked excited and alarmed. The few women in the crowd cried and already saw their own friends among the many that all felt must have been caught in the whirlpool of fire and dragged down with hungry fury to an awful death. Running in the direction of the fire, I met three wretched men that had barely escaped from the flames. One of them, howling in agony, "O, my God, what shall I do! what can I do," had his clothes almost wholly burned from his body. His back and breast, and legs were brown, with enormous fire blisters hanging to the skin, while his hands were burned to the bones. At the time of the explosion he was sitting in the derrick, and in running through the flames, fell down with both hands plunged into the burning oil. He was able, however, to leap into the creek, fortunately not covered with the oil, and thus barely got out of the hissing, crackling blaze. His name was Lucius Kingsley of Syracuse, New-York.

On the heels of Kingsley was another man, bleeding and burned, and holding out his charred hands to the passing frightened crowd. Still another man bleeding, howling, and fearfully burned, followed. The alarm was so great that neither of these could tell how many others had shared their fate, or suffered even by burning on the ground. As many as 50 persons having been in the immediate vicinity of the well when the explosion took place, and at least half of these had been probably burned to death on the ground.

The consternation for ten minutes was immense. Millions of property were in peril, and lives already lost. Immediately squads of workmen were organized, who, with shovels and spades, worked upon the outer edge of the fire to stay its progress. So soon as the Fire Demon had licked up the oil on the ground, it began gradually to die out on the borders, and, finally, in the space of two hours, was wholly contented at the well. Engine house, derricks, tanks and evergreen trees had been burned. The fire was still roaring at the mouth of the tubing.

The oil and gas in immense quantities, in consequence of the great vacuum produced at the bottom of the well, poured forth only to leap into furious flames, while the right portion of the tubing dripped with liquid fire. During the night men labored to devise some plan for its extinguishment. At length three pieces of tubing, screwed together, were, by means of a funnel, run into the mouth of the tubing whence the oil issued in flames, and finally fastened, so that the oil was conducted forty or fifty feet further off. By the free use of wet blankets the fire was at length subdued at 1 o'clock this morning, when a shout arose from the men engaged as if a victory over the Rebel hordes had been gained.

In the mean time it was learned that none had been burned alive and that but six were seriously injured. These were Lucius Kingsley of Syracuse, N.Y., not expected to live, though there is hope; Curtis Armstrong of Clarion Co., Pa.; John Dugan of Pa.; A. P. Floyd of Niagara Falls, body burned on the breast and legs and hands; and Mr. Gregory of N. Y. City, and his lady, to whom he was showing the well when the explosion took place. It is hoped that all of these will recover, though in the case of the first two it is very doubtful.

The well is again running this morning in a hole dug for the purpose. Its yield, since the fire, with the sucker rods yet in, cannot be less than 400 bbls. It promises to be the largest well on Pit Hole Creek. This morning it is flowing more beautifully in a continuous stream, and already gives assurance of being the largest well on Pit Hole. This first fire will be very important in teaching the necessity of not testing wells by pumping them on the ground. This morning the people are gathered about the well, curiously gazing at the few ruins that yet remain. This well, hereafter to be famous, is partly owned by the United States Company. Fortunately no lives were lost, though it is miraculous that any escaped.