Smyrna fire still under investigation
NORWICH – The cause of the natural gas rig fire on New Year’s Day on County Rt. 22 in the town of Smyrna is still under investigation, according to a Norse Energy, Inc. spokesman.
The Norwegian parent company of Nornew, Inc., which maintains a field operations office at the Eaton Center in Norwich, said the company’s insurance investigator is looking at the surrounding circumstances and would be reporting back shortly.
“No one saw the fire ignite. The well was not being drilled. It was completed, and workers were working at other things. The rig simply hadn’t been removed yet,” Dennis Holbrook, company spokesman commented Tuesday from Nornew’s office in Buffalo.
Nornew workers attempted to extinguish the fire before calling for emergency support. Emergency squads from Smyrna, Sherburne and Earlville arrived at the scene at 4:44 p.m. Flames from the well head itself and, later, a gas rig, were extinguished rapidly, and responders left the scene by 8 p.m.
Chenango County Fire Coordinator Matt Beckwith told the Chenango County Board of Supervisors on Monday that he believed the fire was ignited after pressure escaping from a leaky valve forced rocks up from the well, which then struck a florescent light on the rig and sparked a fire.
Instead of blowing water directly onto steel in minus 7 degree temperatures, and possibly collapsing the entire well, rig operators blew air from a compressor across the wellhead to separate the gas from the fire. The remaining flames on the rig’s hydraulic lines were extinguished.
“This fire was out of the normal protocol for foaming,” Beckwith said.
Beckwith said the county’s emergency squads had met previously with Nornew, Inc. officials regarding emergency response and “worked well together.” He said volunteer responders “did a great job on a brutally cold night.”
Holbrook said he called Town of Smyrna Supervisor James B. Bays following the incident. He said Nornew, Inc. appreciates “the cooperation, timeliness and effectiveness between our company and the fire departments” of Chenango County.
Supervisors Bays said he had received numerous calls from concerned family members of firefighters. “Their loved ones are fighting fires that they have no experience with,” he said. “I still don’t have an answer for the concern being raised in my township.”
“Remember, it’s in Smyrna today, but it will be in your town soon,” Bays said to the 22-member board of supervisors regarding the future of natural gas well drilling in Chenango County.
Chenango County’s Natural Gas Committee Chairman Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, asked Beckwith whether emergency squads should be equipped with air compressors.
The Norwegian parent company of Nornew, Inc., which maintains a field operations office at the Eaton Center in Norwich, said the company’s insurance investigator is looking at the surrounding circumstances and would be reporting back shortly.
“No one saw the fire ignite. The well was not being drilled. It was completed, and workers were working at other things. The rig simply hadn’t been removed yet,” Dennis Holbrook, company spokesman commented Tuesday from Nornew’s office in Buffalo.
Nornew workers attempted to extinguish the fire before calling for emergency support. Emergency squads from Smyrna, Sherburne and Earlville arrived at the scene at 4:44 p.m. Flames from the well head itself and, later, a gas rig, were extinguished rapidly, and responders left the scene by 8 p.m.
Chenango County Fire Coordinator Matt Beckwith told the Chenango County Board of Supervisors on Monday that he believed the fire was ignited after pressure escaping from a leaky valve forced rocks up from the well, which then struck a florescent light on the rig and sparked a fire.
Instead of blowing water directly onto steel in minus 7 degree temperatures, and possibly collapsing the entire well, rig operators blew air from a compressor across the wellhead to separate the gas from the fire. The remaining flames on the rig’s hydraulic lines were extinguished.
“This fire was out of the normal protocol for foaming,” Beckwith said.
Beckwith said the county’s emergency squads had met previously with Nornew, Inc. officials regarding emergency response and “worked well together.” He said volunteer responders “did a great job on a brutally cold night.”
Holbrook said he called Town of Smyrna Supervisor James B. Bays following the incident. He said Nornew, Inc. appreciates “the cooperation, timeliness and effectiveness between our company and the fire departments” of Chenango County.
Supervisors Bays said he had received numerous calls from concerned family members of firefighters. “Their loved ones are fighting fires that they have no experience with,” he said. “I still don’t have an answer for the concern being raised in my township.”
“Remember, it’s in Smyrna today, but it will be in your town soon,” Bays said to the 22-member board of supervisors regarding the future of natural gas well drilling in Chenango County.
Chenango County’s Natural Gas Committee Chairman Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, asked Beckwith whether emergency squads should be equipped with air compressors.
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