Wyoming History: June 17, 1921, The Day Lightning Set 7 Huge Oil Tanks Ablaze

CASPER — Friday, June 17, 1921, may as well be a local Oil City holiday — Murphy’s Law Day, because if you had to pick one day where everything that could go wrong did, that would be it.

But in the end a Spanish-American War cannon helped avert what could’ve become a truly historic disaster.

At the Midwest Oil Refinery on the west side of the city, operations to refine the oil stored in seven huge tanks across the North Platte River were going normally that morning. The oil that went into the tanks was piped down from the company’s operations in the Salt Creek Field. A pipeline under the river brought it into the refinery.

During the afternoon, storm clouds rolled into the region, and about 2:30 p.m. the weather unleashed a fury of lighting and rain.

The Casper Daily Tribune found an eyewitness, Chamber of Commerce Secretary C. B. Stafford, who from a hill south of town watched a disaster unfold. It would start among the huge tanks holding the oil.

Deadly Hit

“Standing on the knoll overlooking the new tourist camp south of the city he saw the lighting strike the southernmost tank of those fired and run from one to another of the huge steel containers,” the paper reported. “A concussion occurred as each tank ignited.”

And so began a multiday effort to control, contain, and extinguish a massive oil-fueled fire among the six 55,000-barrel and one 80,000-barrel holding tanks, as well as avert further disaster to the hundreds of people trying to suppress it. By the time it was over, the fire had consumed about 350,000 of the 410,000 barrels.

The Daily Tribune reported that many employees were around the tank area when the lighting struck and several were “more or less shocked by lighting, but none of them had to stop work because of the experience.”

One man suffered a serious arm injury during initial response efforts and needed medical attention.

“During the downpour of rain which followed, the tanks burned fiercely and hundreds of men were rushed to the tank farm to throw up dikes and keep the fire from spreading to other tanks,” the newspaper reported. “An automobile truck parked near one of the tanks was totally destroyed.”

In 1921, there was not a lot of technology or equipment to deal with a disaster of that magnitude, but steam pressure was used to keep the oil from vaporizing and exploding at the high fire temperatures. The refinery turned water lines on tanks that were not hit but were near the fire to prevent further disaster.

Light And Smoke

That night Casper residents by the hundreds jammed city roads to watch the tanks burn.

Papers the next day not only reported on the fire, but there were train car derailments in Careyhurst, Wyoming, and in Casper because of the estimated 1.25 inches of rainfall that came with the lighting, which not only flooded basements, but wreaked havoc with storm drain capacity.

“The damage will spread all over town, the outlets from the mountain and the lower sections of Casper representing the heaviest losses,” the Daily Tribune reported.

Residents woke up that day to the thick smoke from the burning oil that made the city so dark that people had to turn on the lights although it was daytime.

At the refinery, Midwest Oil was able to salvage some of the oil from the bottom of the tanks before a line broke. Then the effort to deal with the fire and stop it from spreading brought out a special weapon.

Cannon Aid

“A three-inch gun which has been on display here was brought into play in perforating the heavy steel tanks,” the Daily Tribune reported. “The tanks were shot near the ground mark so that some of the oil could be lowered in the burning tanks and some of this seepage oil salvaged.”

The gun was a Spanish-American War cannon, and special shells were made in Casper to get the job done.

Hundreds of men were involved in the operation to fight the fire and salvage the oil.

By Monday, June 20, the tank fire burned itself out and officials estimated 350,000 barrels of oil was lost. The seven tanks were twisted, gnarled and blackened. The price of oil in 1921 averaged around $1.73 per barrel. Loss to Midwest in 1921 dollars was about $605,000. That figure in 2024 would be about $9.5 million.

The Midwest Oil Co. vowed to continue taking 40% of the production of its Salt Creek operations and plans were quickly underway to replace the lost storage capacity.

The men who fought the fires received praise from company officials and others in the oil industry, the Daily Tribune reported Tuesday, June 21, 1921.

“Most of the men had no previous experience in combatting an outbreak of this magnitude, and an oil fire is something which requires special methods in controlling,” the newspaper reported. “Many of the men were on the job continuously, stopping only to snatch a few hours sleep and getting along with an occasional sandwich and cup of coffee brought up by an improvised company canteen.”

Possible Now?

Joe Corbett of Casper Wyoming Energy Consultants, a petroleum engineer who specializes in project management and well design for the oil industry, has experience with refinery storage projects and oil wells.

He said he has never seen a lighting strike ignite anything in his more than 40-year career.

“I have seen lighting strikes where lighting has hit a well where it has electrical, submersible pumps and have put them out of commission, but never a fire,” he said. “If it hits the control panel it will fry it and put it out of commission but not cause any fires.”

Corbett said technology today would likely prevent what happened at the Midwest tank farm in 1921.

“Either grounding rods or other methods for grounding whether it is synthetic matting that the tank sits on or actual grounding rod — that’s pretty typical in modern installations,” he said.

Now all that’s left of that devastating fire 103 years ago are historic photos, newspaper clippings and that old cannon, which still points toward where it helped stem the inferno.

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.