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The Times of India
The Times of India
World
TOI World Desk

In 1895, lightning ignited a massive West Virginia gas well, sending flames 200 feet into the sky as crowds gathered to witness one of America’s most extraordinary fires

West Virginia Natural Gas

In 1895, a lightning strike turned an already uncontrollable natural gas well in West Virginia into a spectacular column of fire. The Big Moses gas well, located along Indian Creek in Tyler County, had become famous after drillers searching for oil instead struck an enormous underground supply of natural gas. According to West Virginia Explorer, the well produced gas with such extraordinary pressure that efforts to contain it repeatedly failed. When lightning ignited the escaping gas on June 14, 1895, flames reportedly rose 150 to 200 feet into the air and attracted crowds from the surrounding countryside. However, historical newspaper accounts cited by various sources reveal an important detail often lost in later retellings: the lightning-triggered fire itself lasted only about two hours before the force of the escaping gas blew it out.

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