Several years ago I was approached by my Driller,”Oh good you smoke;you can light the Blooey-line.”

At that particular moment I was watching the next rig on the jug-line’s Blooey-line shoot a flare some fifteen to twenty feet.I searched for the makings for a torch,to light and throw from a distance,no boom I’d pick it up and throw it again.Driller had grown impatient at my lack of haste in doing as I was bid,so I grabbed my cigarettes & lighter.

Now,one of the first things  I’d learned as a young little worm was ,”If your going to have an open flame on a live-gas well,you might as well have a cigarette.”Who wants to die having a nicotine-fit?That and walking up to a Blooey-line before striking a light was a recipe for third degree(Or worse)burns.Hence the name.I had learned that lesson watching another guy walk up to the end of one with a Bic-lighter and light it.

Getting upwind around a hundred foot or so I lit a smoke,and proceeded to saunter towards the line.Not having a torch meant I’d have to be real close.Just as I became aware of gas sparking around me Driller saw what I was about.Letting out a shout he hurried to intercept me,lest I light the Blooey-line.Sputtering about the dangers of smoking on a live-gas well.I let him run down as I finished my cigarette since I didn’t really need it for the next step.

Due to the vagories of the wind in western Oklahoma can scream acroos the planes then just as suddenly turn and eddie around so what came next surprised us both.Taking my Zippo lighter,I asked with feigned innocence having done this job before.

“What do you want me to do walk up there and do this?”,I asked striking the lighter,which would light in a forty mile an’ hour wind,I was rewarded with an instant flame.And a sound not unlike a big zipper as the gas in the atmosphere tried to light!Smothering the lighter with both hands I did my best to control my bladder,as Driller turned an ashen gray.From the look on his face I could see that was exactly what he’d expected me to do.

“Oh man that scared me!”, he yelled.

“Scared you?!I know what it was trying to do!”Pointing at the line,”This is the most dangerouse job you can do out here.Smoking the cigarette was a test to let me know when I was getting in to the gas,since I couldn’t make a torch too throw!”I added the last accusingly.Natural gas will always light off an open flame whereas it will only spark off a cigarette,that is unless you walk in to a cloud of it,then Blooey!