_ —_ (FIT Bn ald) eck el ak dS THEN THE GAS IGNITED’ by JAMES MacPHERSON Was only 100 feet from the ep Near mile 97 in the Peace River Block when *ploded with the sound of Vtillion exploding gas ovens, “ding flames 200 feet high. . 3 tt 1s with some bitterness tT recall pep talks given to {Mtg Canadian ‘workers by oil ai Many officials—pep talks to vince them to forego long its of Overtime and to work , ™Mimum monthly salaries 5), “U8e, they said, there was a term future for them with of companies. Provided, of *€, they didn’t try to or- ite a union! : 7 et a few days ago I met ie : Bee workers who work- Ny With me on the drilling rig ty Mile 95 along the Halfway Mr last summer. After all ey Pep talks they were looking |," lobs, Meeting them empha- a Hast two things — the tragic Hy r the natural gas well I" ‘ he tragedy of their unem- Tent status today. i! eo the past decade I have Mut in'scores of camps with lof around 400 young | ts on slim hole jobs, ex- i) ation and on big rigs. Most #), Se young men today are i fe at different ‘short Obs or unemployed. he hears a lot about the Mh, cial risk” in the oil in- th, ‘8 but surely the precious “lbe tment is that of young ie lans who under the most fh “ult and dangerous condi- Ney have cléared the trails Ihe “gh bush and muskeg and Aig, © mountains, to find the ie" D : Ms and drill the wells. tragic explosion near last summer is a case Point, eo Re > ae five o’clock'in the f yy tS and I had been half Hh, ® for hours listening ‘to bone Ominous sound of the €ssure building up. I had ly, — sound often on big & , “2 drilling for natural Mh this time it. sounded Wu and though I was not ! hing yet, I couldn’t sleep. It nti. ed like a plane on some fh BPA: horizon slowly ap- ig hing, But the horizon it Nfoming from was 7,000 feet the Surface. Pressure was building An Pushing mud up into ge“ tanks and the mud was Be Ng rapidly. hy, Ming fully’ awake, I if tea ysteria in the driller’s Ws. 2E commands to a hy, “of the night tower he Rt, ‘Get the toolpush! Get °Olpush!” Ni Men on the night tower re already dead tired A portable oil rig in the Peace River Block of British Columbia. before the sound of rising pres- sure began. They had finished reaming and then had started pulling pipe. They had four lengths hoisted when the mud started pouring into the mud tank. There was nearly .7,000 feet of mud in the hole but it had been gasifying — the gas stealing into the mud that was supposed to hold it in check. Glen, the ‘derrick man, noticed Bill, the motorman, go- ing over to the shell shaker and all at once the mud was run- ning over to the shaker: and into ‘the mud tanks. Up in his monkey cage, the derrick man saw the mud pouring up and he shouted to the driller in charge. Sandy the driller, ran for. the brakes (they were tripping at the time), calling to the der- rick man to®%tome down. While the driller screamed orders above the growing crescendo of escaping gas, young roughnecks frantically pulled and pushed on the rams, their muscles bulging with the strain as they put all their strength into trying~to close the rams and so shut off the gas coming up between the pipe and the casing. But the power- ful rubbers that clamp around the pipe and stem failed to close in. The tool joints that should finally close and lock the rams and shut off the drill head were never used. Hastily the toolpush confer- red with driller, then he called for the cement truck. But it was already too late. The gas was escaping with a thunderous roar. One worker was on the floor inside the enclosed prefab covering of the rig floor and I saw the driller go back through the doghouse. Another worker ran up the doghouse stairs frantically calling on them to come out . .». then the gas ignited. A spark from the motors or a rock hurled up by the pres- sure from beneath? Who knows? Flames leapt 200 feet into the sky and all around the rig. The .worker who had jist reached the doghouse door was thrown clear by the explosion. But he was badly burned. A moment later the driller ap- peared at the top of the dog- house stairs screaming for guidance. He had been blinded by the flames. He stumbled down the, stairs and fell to the ground. We ran to drag him across the yard. But the worker “who had been on the rig floor was en- veloped by the flames. The doghouse door was only six feet behind him and he couldn’t find it. Instead he stumbled along the floor past the motors to- Tom McEwen (above), editor of the Pacific. Tribune, who made an extended visit to China two years ago will tell of his own discussions with Chinese leaders on the issue of Taiwan and the offshore istands wen he speaks at a public meeting to be held this Friday, September 19, 8 p.m. in Pender Auditorium here, wards the pumps and down the ramp. There he collapsed. His clothing was no more than charred fragments; only his shoes were intact. Twenty minutes later the mast collapsed and all our desperate efforts were concen- trated on preventing the fire from spreading to the gasoline tanks. Our first aid kit lost in the fire, we tore up sheets to ban- dage the burns of the injured men. Then we carried them 10 miles to the Halfway River while we waited for Fort St. John to respond to our radioed appeal for help. But the bridge had been washed out and that meant waiting for a helicopter to be sent. Lying on the river bank as comfortably as we could make him, Walter, the man who had been trapped inside the rig, regained consciousness. ‘Do you think I’ll make it?” he asked. Who could tell him otherwise? We turned away to hide our tears when he said to the doctor “Could I go straight home? My wife would be glad to have me home.” He died on the trip to hospital. xt xt xt No doubt insurance took care of Walter’s family and _ the other two men finally recover- ed from their burns, though they would never be the same. But the ‘men who worked to save the camp and then worked day and night for a week to extinguish the fire, most of them are forgotten today. Some of them are working from one part-time job to another. But in 30 Rockefeller Plaza or Pittsburgh’s House of Mel- lon the coupon clippers, many of whom do not know the dif- ference between a drill bit and a pork pie, will happily plan whether they should go to Miami or to southern France this winter, September 19, 1958 — PUC may Braployment ‘future’ for oil workers probe legal objections The Public Utilities Com- mission on Friday. last week closed its hearing on the B.C. Electric application for a bus fare increase with an an- nouncement by its chairman, Dr. H. F. Angus, that the com- mission may consider seeking a ruling by the B.C. Court of Appeal on important points of law raised by parties oppos- ing the application. During Friday’s hearing T. P. O’Grady, counsel for Vic- toria City, demanded that the PUC disclose private re- ports submitted by the BCE. Angus refused to do so. The court of appeal may be asked to rule whether the PUC has the right to: withhold company reports at a public hearing. Court of Appeal may also be asked _ to rule whether the company must abide by the order-in~council of July 16, 1948, which requires that gas, electricity and transit be con- sidered as a unit for rate fix- ing purposes. The BCE has al- ways sought to separate them when it served their purposes as in the recent bus fare ap- plication. Mrs. Effie Jones, Civic Re- form president, this week asked Vancouver City Coun- cil to join with Victoria and other municipalities in mak- ing “joint representation be- fore the court-of-appeal in support of legal arguments which would protect the pub- lic from the _ interpretations which the B.C. Electric has tried to place on these points of law which have been con- trary to the public’s_ inter- esis.” Meanwhile Vancouver City Council, acting on a_ letter from the Civic Reform Asso- ciation advocating public ownership of the BCE, has voted against sale of the tran- sit system to private inves- tors -and turned .down any suggestion that the city pay subsidies out of public muni- cipal funds to a privately op- erated company. Council also decided to invite lower main- land councils to join with it in pressing these views on the provincial government. Mrs. Jones told the Pacific Tribune this week that PUC action in postponing .a de- cision on the fare boost was the result of public pressure. She urged organizations and individuals to continue. their representations to the PUC. “This is the time for all those who favor ownership of the BCE to press Vancou- ver City Council and the provincial government. for action,” she said. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 3 ]