Three injured at Antero well fire

Well incident: Kick reportedly led to fire

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Kathrine Schmidt

 17 August 2012 20:41 GMT

An Antero well in northern West Virginia blew out after a gas kick Friday morning, causing a rig fire that injured three workers and damaged equipment.

As of Friday, workers with Hall Drilling of Ellenboro had perforated about 470 feet of the Cattril-3 well in Harrison County, which was targeting the Marcellus formation, the state Department of Environmental Protection told Upstream.

Shortly before 4:15 am, the team on the company's Rig 3 felt a kick.

“From preliminary reports, something sparked a pocket of gas and there was a flash fire,” Tom Aluise, a spokesman for the DEP, told Upstream.

“The fire burned probably an hour before it was extinguished on site.”

Two workers were injured and flown to a burn unit…

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