On this date in 1936, a gas eruption from a Barnesville well caused an explosion and fire, later identified as swamp gas still burning days after the incident.

Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:

A party of NDAC chemists went to Barnesville, Minn., Monday to investigate nature of a gas which Saturday burst out of a water well being sunk at the home of Harley Allen, started flames which necessitated calling of fire fighters and is still burning with a clear blue flame from the end of a two inch pipe.

Allen’s home is at the western outskirts of Barnesville and a block away is boggy ground in which are many springs. The opinion of Allen and Chris Miller, the well driller, was that the gas originated in the swampy ground and is so-called swamp gas.

The well had

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