At approximatly 5:25 AM on November 14, 1998, a gas main ruptured North of Mahomet, Illinois. These digital photos were taken after the bulk of the fire had been extinquished. Some of the images appear to be out of focus, this is because the auto-focus was being fooled by the shifting gas fueled flame. All Images Copyright, Greg Abbott 1998 - All Rights Reserved.
[Click on an image to see it enlarged]
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This shot gives you a perspective of how far away we are. The fire is just to the right of the roadway at the horizon. |
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Zoomed in on the gas well where the fire continued to burn after the main body of fire was extinguished by shutting off the gas main. |
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Another shot of the well. |
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A fire engine from The Cornbel Fire Protection District, inches closer to the scene of the fire. |
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Closer to the fire scene, this shot is taken from the east side. |
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The fire started to die down and only occasionally flared up from this point on. The vapor you can see venting here is natural gas under high pressure. |
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Another flare up. This continued for about thirty minutes while the gas company prepared to shut down the supply of gas to the well. |
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Fire crews standby as an employee of Peoples Gas, Light and Coke approaches the well to shut off the supply of gas. |
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In this photo, we see the main which ruptured, the hole which was blasted out is about 50 feet long, 20 feet wide and 20 feet deep. You can still see a small amount of fire which is from some residual fuel in the main. |
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If you look at the side of the crater, you can see the layers of earth which were cut away by the high pressure gas escaping and burning. |
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This used to be a fence row at a house located about 200 feet away from the scene of the fire. |
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And as the situation was declared under control, the sun was just starting to rise. |
� Greg Abbott, 1998