Drilling explosion and fire under investigation

NEW MILTON, W.Va. – Five contract employees working on a fracking site in Doddridge County were flown to the West Penn Burn Center, in Pittsburgh, following Sunday morning’s explosion.

Rick Campbell with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said Monday he did not know how serious those injuries were.

Campbell was on the scene of the explosion at Antero Resources’ New Milton operation Sunday afternoon.  He stressed the drilling rig was not involved.  The blast happened about 50 yards away where the crew was working.

“There was no fracking going on.  They were pumping logging tools out the horizontal leg on the gas well,” explained Campbell.

Logging tools are what’s used to determine the type of rock strata and where perforating and fracking should take place at a well site.

Campbell said the crew was in the process of moving the logging tools through the pipe when the water pump they were using malfunctioned.

“They had a failure on the pump and they were working on the pumping unit,” according to Campbell. “Evidently there was a spark, from that pump, that ignited vapors in those tanks.”

Right now, what those vapors were is only speculation. But DEP officials say they believe it might have been natural gas mixed in with the water that, when ignited, caused a big blast and then a fire.

Chief Randy Trent, with the Bancs Volunteer Fire Department, said, as they were moving towards the explosion site shortly after the blast, they met several different vehicles headed in the opposite direction transporting the victims. The firefighters were able to help move those workers into ambulances where they were taken to United Hospital Center, in Harrison County, and then flown on to the West Penn Burn Center.

Trent, who has been with emergency services for a long time, said his volunteer firefighters were dealing with victims who had serious injuries.

“Any time you’re dealing with the severely injured, like we were [Sunday], it’s a very traumatic situation, if not a scary situation,” explained Trent.

Campbell said his role, at the explosion site, was to determine if the water quality, in the area, had been compromised by the blast. He says it was not and the New Milton operation didn’t have any violations with the DEP.

Those with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will handle the main investigation.

“They’re in the workplace safety, health and safety of the workers. They will do a thorough investigation of this,” said Campbell.

Antero Resources is based out of Denver.  They have multiple drilling sites in West Virginia in seven counties, according to their website.

At one of their operations in Harrison County last year, a fire injured three workers. The company was cited by the DEP in that blast.

A call was made to Antero’s West Virginia headquarters, but so far has not been returned.





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