Crack oil well fire team in place at eastern Utah rig

A crack team of oil well firefighting experts was at the site of an ongoing eastern Utah oil rig drilling site blaze Wednesday as an evacuation entered its second day.

Houston-based Wild Well Control, which has responded to oil and natural gas well fire emergencies since 1975, including the 1991 Kuwait Oil Field fires, was called in by Devon Energy, the operator of the well site 1.5 miles north of Roosevelt.

The well site, owned by Utah's Frontier Drilling, caught fire early Tuesday morning. The Duchesne County Sheriff's Department evacuated the site's employees and residents of five homes within a half-mile radius of the fire scene. No injuries were reported.

Chip Minty, spokesman for the Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy, could not provide an estimate for when Wild Well Control would be able to extinguish the fire and cap the well.

"I can say they are working very hard and going about this in a very deliberate way. Safety is the most important thing to us here. We want to make sure it is safe for our workers to return, safe for the environment and safe for neighbors," Minty said.

The fire was quickly contained to the drilling rig area on Tuesday, but fears about the release of hydrogen sulfide gas prompted the decision to evacuate the immediate area. The evacuation will remain in place for as long as it takes to determine the site and its surroundings pose no further danger, Minty said.

Evacuees are receiving lodging and having other living expenses met by the well's owners in the interim, Minty said.

The cause of the fire remained undetermined.

"For now, we're focusing on the matter at hand, which is extinguishing this fire. Once that is over with, we will move back in and investigate the cause," Minty said.

The blaze was reported about 12:10 a.m. Tuesday. Drilling crews had recently completed sinking a well shaft when there was a release of oil and gas that then ignited.

remims@sltrib.com