The fire occurred at the Hillcorp Energy Company Lackawannock Larmon Central Facility March 31 at the corner of Mercer-West Middlesex Road and Bend Road. The fire at the gas well started around 1 p.m. and black smoke was visible from the site.
West Middlesex Fire Chief Rich Garrett described the situation as “extremely dangerous,” saying “that’s why we waited it out.”
“We had to evacuate about 100 people, about 30 homes,” Garrett said.
Back at the fire scene, it was determined what exactly was burning.
“It seems to be a compressor caught on fire. Unknown why. There was major gas in there so we had to wait for the gas to be bled off before we could safely attack the fire,” Garrett said.
That didn’t come until around 3:30 p.m., two and a half hours after the fire started.
“We kept eyes on it. We made trips back in to look at it and then come back up,” Garrett said
Once firefighters found out from the people who operate the gas well the pressure had been completely relieved, they then went in to fight the fire.
The fire was quickly extinguished. By 4:30 p.m., the evacuation order ended up lifted and the road reopened.
There were no injuries in the incident.
“We are thankful for the quick response of the fire professionals… the exact cause of the fire has not yet been determined,” said Hillcorp spokesman Nick Piatek in a statement.