Oil Fires on the Hill

High concentrations of natural gas made the Signal Hill field constantly dangerous for oilmen, with “gassers,” “gushers,” gas flares, and fires. When Shell Oil completed its second well in 1921, it blew out as a “gasser” and caught fire, sending flames 125 feet into the air, visible from 12 miles inland and 30 miles out at sea; the well, estimated to flow 20 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, was finally extinguished with 17 steam boilers over 36 hours. Another Shell well, Martin #1, also blew in as a “gasser,” and its flames were put out with 100 pounds of dynamite. The Black and Drake well near Walnut and Willow was a huge “gusher” that, during a month of uncontrolled blowing, created a lake of oil about 30 feet in diameter and hurled rocks through nearby homes, burying the neighborhood 4 to 5 feet deep. Gas flares were so common that many wells needed no other lighting at night, and when cold fog trapped raw gas near the ground, any spark could cause an explosion. In 1933, a blast of fumes at the Richfield Meander plant near Lime and 27th killed eight people and destroyed several nearby homes and derricks. In 1958, a 40-hour oil froth fire burned 27 of 33 acres of the Hancock Oil Co. refinery, killed two people, and caused $9 million in damage. Signal Hill likely faced the most difficult fire hazards of any city its size in the state, and its fire department, consisting of a fire chief and about a dozen men, developed techniques for fighting oil fires that helped keep fire destruction remarkably low.

Signal Hill, California · United States