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OK oil well ignites, injuring two workers
Tulsa World, Okla. (July 24, 2008)Jul. 24--MANNFORD -- Two workers were slightly injured Wednesday when an oil well they were cleaning blew out, resulting in a fire.
George Davenport, the managing partner of High Plains Well Service, said the men were burned after oil spewed out of the well and ignited on the exhaust pipe of a nearby parked truck.
Davenport would not identify the workers, but he said one suffered a second-degree burn on an elbow, and the other had first-degree burns on the back of his neck.
Both men were taken to a Tulsa hospital, and Davenport said he expected that they would be treated and released.
The accident occurred about 1:30 p.m. just south of Oklahoma 51 near Oklahoma 151, the highway that crosses Keystone Dam, about four miles east of Mannford.
The Keystone Volunteer Fire Department was the first to respond, followed by the Sand Springs Fire Department.
Tom Jenkins, Sand Springs' assistant fire chief, said firefighters sprayed foam on the blaze, which involved two trucks parked side by side near the oil well.
Jenkins said it took about 15 minutes for firefighters to extinguish the fire.
He said Keystone Fire Chief George Blackburn was at the fire scene by himself
when Sand Springs firefighters arrived and that Blackburn suffered from heat exhaustion.
He was treated at the scene by Sand Springs fire rescue crews, Jenkins said.
Both trucks were destroyed, Davenport said.
He said the fire was so intense that a bulldozer parked 60 feet away was scorched.
Davenport said the worker who was burned on the elbow followed his safety training to the letter.
The worker quickly rolled around on the ground to extinguish the flames, limiting his injuries.
"That safety training pays off," Davenport said.
Manny Gamallo 581-8386 manny.gamallo@tulsaworld.com
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