JERRY PERSON -- A Look Back

The day began as a peaceful Friday morning, and the air had the hint of a

cool June mist. People were driving to work along our wide stretches of

beach, while others were home having breakfast.

The walking beams of the oil wells nodded up and down along Pacific Coast

Highway, and oil workers were checking their wells.

The first signs that this June 24, 1949, morning would be different came

from a low, rumbling sound deep within the earth. It was 9:25 a.m., and

all of a sudden one of the wells at 23rd Street (Goldenwest Street) and

Pacific Coast Highway shot more than 100 barrels of water and mud into

the air.

In less than an instant, gas and oil followed the mud. The gas ignited,

sending flames more than a hundred feet into the air. Five Standard Oil

Co. workmen nearby received first- and second-degree burns, the most

serious of the five injuries were sustained by Huntington Beach oil

worker Melvin Brown.

Fire Chief Jack Sargent quickly mobilized his men, but the well’s

pressure increased, sending flames higher and higher into the sky and

black oil oozing across Pacific Coast Highway and over the bluffs and

down into the ocean below.

Sargent was now joined by Police Chief Don Blossom and lifeguard Chief

Delbert “Bud” Higgins, along with James Sayer and Oscar Stricklin from

Standard Oil.

The Highway Patrol and local police sealed off the coast highway to

traffic, and the Pacific Electric Red Cars were stopped.

Throughout Friday, the orange flames could be seen for several miles

around. A dozen pumpers were streaming water on the 3,500-foot-deep well

and onto nearby wells in an effort to keep them from igniting.

By Friday night, the oil had stopped flowing, but the gas continued

unabated. The flames could be seen as far as Catalina as firefighters and

oilmen worked side by side, battling the intense heat. Water was

discontinued, and liquid mud was sprayed onto the inferno.

Hissing from the flaming well could be heard for hundreds of feet in all

directions, and the earth vibrated under the firefighter’s feet.

Workers removed countless barrels of oil that were stored around the

flaming well.

Saturday came and went, the steel 100-foot derrick above the well had now

melted and fell across Pacific Coast Highway. There were hundreds of

onlookers by now to contend with, and traffic up Beach Boulevard caused a

heavy jam that was 1 1/2 miles long.

Flames reached 150 feet into the air, and the intense heat was as if hell

had surfaced. It began melting the asphalt pavement of Pacific Coast

Highway and had warped the Red Car’s tracks.

Throughout Saturday night and into Sunday, the brave firefighters

continued battling the devil’s torch. Monday morning came, and a new

approach was taken.

Salt water was pumped down nearby wells under high pressure at 1,000

barrels an hour. Still, the flames continued and another method was

tried.

The firefighters used high-pressure hoses to force the flames away from

the well opening long enough for a 100-foot crane to drop a plug into the

opening. It worked, and by 1:05 p.m. Monday, the firefighters and oilmen

were able to spray a blanket of water fog onto the well and extinguish

the inferno.

With the fire out, the area looked like a war zone with all the twisted

metal about. What had begun as a quiet, peaceful Friday morning became a

$200,000 nightmare. And throughout those 3 1/2 half sleepless days, our

firefighters stayed to the very end and put out one of Huntington Beach’s

most spectacular fires.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach 92615.