Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/34

6 at work gradually pushing the retaining walls in toward the center of the blaze. Because of the intense heat this was done under the greatest difficulty. The circumference of the wall was gradually tightened, thus slowly reducing the area of the blaze.

Pipes were led to the bottom of the blazing area and oil was drawn as fast as possible from the seepage. As it was not fit for commercial use this was pumped to a safe spot nearly five miles distant from the blaze proper and then burned, making in itself a huge conflagration.

Finally during the last part of December, the five walls had been pushed in so far that the blaze was confined to a relatively small area, and everything was made ready for a last effort, greater than all previous attempts. Tons of chemicals were piled near the scene, and thousands of feet of extra steam pipes were laid from the boilers and pumps. This work lasted until about the first of January. In the first days of the new year, the attempt was made. Chemicals were heaped into the fire area and boilers and pumps poured a deluge of water and steam upon the stubborn flames. For hours this frenzied work continued, the result trembling in the balance. At last the ingenuity of man conquered the stubborn forces of nature, and the fire was out.

It seemed almost hopeless to attempt to calculate the damage done by that bolt of lightning. The estimated production of the great well was one hundred and fifty thousand barrels of high grade oil a day, yet for more than four months but twenty-five thousand barrels were drawn. Thousands of dollars were expended upon equipment for the fire fighters, and other thousands went for chemicals which were fed to the flames.

The fire was watched by the greatest interest by the oil trade of the world, who recalled another recordbreaking fire which occurred several years ago not far from the Potrero del Llano conflagration. The Dos Bocas gusher, one of the largest in the world at that time, caught fire before being capped. For nearly a year the fire raged, and only subsided when it had consumed all the oil in the fertile pocket which it had tapped. At the present time it produces only salt water and gas.