Explosion at Chesapeake Drilling Site in Western PA Injures Three Workers

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An explosion last night at a well site along the Pennsylvania/West Virginia border injured three workers and resulted in a fire that burned for about three hours.

Three workers were burned in what neighbors described as an explosion and fire last night at a Marcellus shale drilling site in Washington County.

The blast occurred at the Chesapeake Energy site off Meadowcroft Road and First Street in Avella, a community in Independence Township near the West Virginia border, state Department of Environmental Protection and county 911 officials said.

Five “frac tanks” — mobile steel storage tanks used to hold liquids — burned until 9:30 p.m., DEP spokeswoman Katy Gresh said. She said the three gas wells were not affected by the flames.

“At approximately 6:15 p.m. a flash fire occurred, igniting natural gas liquids storage tanks on the Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC, Powers well site in Avella,” read a statement from Stacey Brodak, director of corporate development at Chesapeake’s offices in Canonsburg.

“Three contract employees are injured and have been transported to the hospital. All wells are shut in, and there is no danger to area residents or threat to the environment,” the statement read.

Brodak said the cause of the fire is not known.*

The hydraulic fracturing process was already completed for the three wells and work on the wells was almost done. The PA DEP will conduct a full investigation to determine why the explosion occurred.

MDN’s view: Of the thousands of gas wells drilled each year, accidents are (thankfully) rare. Our thoughts and prayers go to those injured.

*Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Feb 24) – Three burned at Marcellus shale drilling site near Avella

8 Comments

  1. Hmmmmm…tanks filled with that stuff they say is harmless that they shove into the ground to get the gas….that’s flammable? Imagine that! And they say the methane is what makes people’s tap water catch on fire. I am so looking forward to having flammable chemicals shoved through cement casings provided by Halburton that crack (think Gulf of Mexico!) and seep out flammable “harmless” fluids to get all mingled in with my water table. “Hey! You’ve got your fracking fluid in my well water! Yummy!”

  2. Yeah, “no threat to the environment”……what about all the toxic pollutants released to the atmosphere during the 3 hour 15 minute burn of hazardous frac fluids????? Hey DEP, we do breathe air you know.

  3. Something doesn’t sound right. Steel frac tanks full of flowback wouldn’t burn for hours. Was Chesapeake storing natural gas liquids in these frac tanks? Would that be legal?

  4. Please post when we know what the chemicals were that caused the explosion. I have seen Schlumberger advertise “green” fracking solutions. I suspect some of these fluids (while probably not really “green”) are less cause for concern than others.