The Fiery Demon by H. F. Ketting

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 3, 1906

“The Fiery Demon”

By H. F. Ketting

For more than a month a gas-well, in the edge of the Indian Territory, about seven miles southeast of Caney, Kan., has been burning with terrific fury. Words are entirely inadequate to describe the awful grandeur of the scene as a flame of burning gas shoots one hundred and fifty feet into the air.

The well was drilled by the New York Gas Company, February 17. After striking gas at a depth of about fifteen hundred feet, the men were working for days under extreme difficulty to get the combustible stuff under control.

On Friday afternoon, February 23, there occurred a thunder storm in the vicinity of the well where the gas has been escaping for several days at the rate of thirty-eight million cubic feet a day, filling the upper regions with gas.

At the sound of a loud clap of thunder, the workmen looked upward, and to their consternation saw the heavens ablaze with the burning gas. They immediately fled from the scene, just in time to escape being caught in the fiery flame. In an instant the well was on fire, and the burning gas set up such a scream and roar that it could be heard twenty miles away. Nothing can describe the terror of the spectacle. Stones weighing several pounds were thrown a thousand feet into the air. Soon an opening in the shape of a funnel was made at the mouth of the well.

Since then the volume of the gas being consumed has increased to nearly double that at the beginning; the daily consumption is now estimated at seventy million cubic feet. The ground is completely burned for a radius of fifty feet, and it is impossible to get nearer than seventy-five feet from the well, on account of the intense heat.

Gas experts are at their wits' end to know how to extinguish the flames which, up to the present, have shown no signs of diminishing. Over fifty men have since been employed in the effort to harness the “fiery demon,” but the heat is so terrible that water must be thrown continually upon the men while they are at work.

At first it was thought that the fire could be extinguished in the usual way by turning steam on at the bottom of the flame. But that seemed to make it burn all the more furiously. It was then thought that by means of an immense crane, a hood in the shape of a funnel turned upside down and weighing several tons, could be placed over the top of the well. The first attempt was made on March 9, but they were unable to swing the immense hood over the well.

A few days later another and more successful attempt was made to place the hood in position, but it had been over the well but a short time when it was burned up, the great crane which was used to swing it was melted and burned down, and soon all was but a pile of scrap-iron. The rubbish was immediately cleared away, and a larger and heavier hood was prepared, and weighed down with several extra tons of iron, and another attempt was made, but with the same result. Thus the fiery monster is still at large, defying all their efforts to bring it into subjection.

Nothing that I have ever seen in any way surpasses, or even equals, the awful grandeur of the scene, except an active volcano. But this is a volcano on a small scale.

The people in the vicinity of the great gas-well are becoming considerably concerned, and can begin to comprehend how the world can be destroyed by fire. If men can drill a few feet into the earth and find gas in the quantity that they are unable to extinguish after it has been ignited, how much more of this combustible is hidden away in the heart of the earth, kept in store for the great day of God's wrath.

Some people scoff at the idea of the earth being destroyed by fire, but Peter says that such are “willingly ignorant” of the facts and conditions as they exist to-day. Science has proved that the earth is filled with the most combustible elements, which, under certain conditions, would envelop this world in a mass of flames.

The Word of God declares that “the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:7.

We read that God by a look causes the earth to tremble, and that by simply touching the mountains he causes them to smoke (Ps. 104:32); how terrible will be the scene when “fire comes down from God out of heaven” and ignites the gases composing the earth, causing the earth to melt, and all things therein to be burned up.

And so we read: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:10-13.—H. F. Ketting, in The Signs of the Times.

[Since this article was first printed, the efforts to cover the well and extinguish the great fire have been successful, and “the fiery demon” was overcome March 29.—Ed.]