Eschenfelden Natural Gas Storage Facility – Gas Fire 1970

The natural gas storage Eschenfelden was put into operation in 1967, operator was the Ruhrgas AG. In 1970, the tranquil, 300-year-old town of Eschenfelden in the Upper Palatinate was transformed into a desolate army camp for six days, consisting of police and fire brigades, journalists and onlookers. Fire trucks, ambulances, cars and motorcycles block the farming village. The reason for this accumulation was the worst gas fire in the history of the Federal Republic. On September 19, it's Saturday, gas escapes from a production pipe shortly after 11:30 am when two workers are in routine repair work. It escapes from the leaking borehole with an immense pressure of 40 bar and ignites due to the air friction. Immediately a 30-meter-high torch blazes into the sky, fed by the gas that keeps leaking out.
The gas storage, which is 700 meters deep underground, contains 170 million cubic meters of gas. It has been in existence since 1967. Every hour 8,000 cubic meters are burned. On Wednesday 23.09. meets "Paul Adair" with his Tupp at the accident site. With heat shields specially designed for this fire, Adair approaches the burning gas torch with his people. About funnel water is mixed with the barite solution and pressed into the well. On the 25th of September the fire is extinguished.
Paul Neal Adair, because of his once red hair, also "Red Adair" was one of the most competent and successful firefighter in the world. Whenever the experts did not know what else to do, Adair was turned on. As early as 1980 he took $ 10,000 an hour. His biggest challenge was the burning oil wells in Kuwait in 1991.mittelbayerische.de/bayern-nachrichten/paul-adairs-einsatz-in-der-oberpfalz-21705-art1009784.html

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