Lake of Fire in Mexico.
A Mexican City dispatch of July 10 states that a lake of oil covering an area of more than 1 sq. mile and of unknown depth in the State of Vera Cruz is on fire. Up to July 10 it had been burning for five days. The blaze, 1,500 ft. high, was visible more than 200 miles at sea. The scene of the fire is to the northeast, near the gulf of Mexico, and remote from any railroad. An oil field was being developed at that place by the Pennsylvania Oil company, which had bored a number of wells. All were flowing oil in large quantities, and it was being placed in earthen storage tanks preparatory to shipping it to market. A workman accidentally set fire to one of the wells, and the flames communicated to the underground reservoir of oil. There was a very loud explosion which raised the earth’s surface throughout the whole field, shook all the surrounding territory and was heard 75 miles away. The fire spread underneath the uplift and 1,000 ft. of surface earth and rock were melted down, leaving a vast open pit of burning oil. Machinery worth $200,000 was destroyed. Millions of barrels were burned and the whole oil field will probably be destroyed. The burning oil found an outlet into San Gareronimo river and flowed in a broad, burning stream down that waterway and into lake Tamiahua. It was feared it might spread to Tampico and Tuxpam, near the mouth of the river. Smoke covered the whole country and was rolling seaward in great volumes.