Longville Oil Well Explosion Kills 14-Year-Old Girl

An oilfield explosion in Longville, Louisiana, killed one person over the weekend. According to Beauregard Parish Fire District #2, crews were called to the scene of the oil well near Cordial Lane and South Cooley Road late Sunday afternoon. Responders had to battle an accompanying blaze that they extinguished shortly before 6 p.m.

Officials later confirmed that the person killed by the blast was a 14-year-old girl from Ragley. Her reasons for being at the oil well remain uncertain. The explosion and fire caused no other casualties, despite being seen and felt from miles away.

“The first thing I could see out of the front door of my house was a big cloud of boiling oil smoke and fire,” Brenda Eddins, a nearby resident, said to KATC. “I was in my house and I heard a big boom and a second boom. And then my house shook, and when my house shook, I was like, ‘What is that?’ Then I knew it was something big."

What Happened During the Beauregard Parish Oil Tank Explosion

According to reports, the oil well was inactive at the time of the incident. However, some experts have indicated that they believe the explosion could have originated from an oil tank at the site.

“There are storage tanks that are often used to haul the oil until a truck can come by and pick it up. On this particular site, there was a tank battery and nearby by there was what’s called a salt water disposal well,” Patrick Courreges with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources told NBC.

Courreges warns that inactive oil wells should always be avoided because of leftover product in their tank batteries. He advises that anyone who comes across an oil well, even if it is inactive, should treat it like a loaded gun.

“Something associated with the oil field, there’s a pretty good assumption that you might have oil. You might have gas vapor. Things like that could be a risk,” Courreges warned.

Deputies from the State Fire Marshal are investigating the cause of the accident with help from Louisiana State Police HazMat. The agencies are working alongside the Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Our oilfield accident lawyers will continue to follow any updates about this story.