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Lucas Oil Burns(Galveston Daily News, February 6, 1901) Beaumont, Tex., Feb. 5--The Oil That Escaped Into The Bayou Became Ignited and Created Excitement--Standard Not In It--Mr. Galey Says The Big Oil Combine Has All The Fuel It Can Handle--Guffey and Galey's Plans--They Will Store Large Quantities and Then Bid For Ship and Railroad Patronage. There was considerable excitement here today caused by a report that the Lucas oil lake was on fire. About 10:30 o'clock this morning a courier brought the information of the fire to Mr. Galey and Capt. Lucas. And they hastily summoned what help they could and went to the scene. Nothing was heard of the fire until late this afternoon. At noon today a tremendous cloud of smoke of intense darkness rose like a huge chain of mountains in the neighborhood of the well and hung there for several hours. A. W. Hamill, well contractor for Capt Lucas, was at the fire and reached here late at night. He said they had succeeded in extinguishing it after a deal of hard work. The fire was about five miles southeast of the Lucas well and oil lake. It will be remembered that the oil from the Lucas gusher overflowed the dams and flowed through the watercourse to Taylor's Bayou and the Gulf. It was the accumulation of oil on the waters of Taylor's Bayou which was burning. How the fire started is a mystery. The Lucas well is in little danger from fire. It is covered with a huge pile of sand, and even should the oil burn, the well would not be injured. A representative of the News today called upon John H. Galey for an explicit statement concerning the reports that he had sold his crude oil to the Standard Oil Company, and Mr. Galey gave a very direct statement to the effect that he had not sold to the Standard, principally because the Standard did not want to buy. "The reports, however," said Mr.Galey, "That the Standard is building this pipe line to El Vista are absolutely incorrect. We, Guffey and Galey, are doing this work and expect to carry it through in short order (as soon as possible). We are going to build storage tanks at El Vista and a pumping station at Port Arthur to handle the oil into ships. Now, it has been very throughly demonstrated that we cannot sell this oil until we have it where we can see it and measure it,and for this reason we must get it out of the ground and into tanks before we can make big contracts for it. We have to open up new markets for this crude product. The Standard doesn't want it because they have more fuel oil now than they know what to do with. We expect to get railroads, steamships, and manufcturers to use it, and before we can do this, we must have it (above ground). We are going to make El Vista (at Port Acres) the principal storage station to lessen the danger of fire." Several more leases were filed for record today. In fact, activity along this line seems to steadily increase. Several derricks were built in the neighborhood of the Lucas well today, and that place is becoming a scene of activity. (comp. by W. T. Block)
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