As Hermosan Beach residents debate the possibility of oil drilling within the city, Redondo Councilman Pat Aust recalled his days as a fire marshal three decades ago, when 51 wells were being capped after drawing what oil they could from under the ocean.
Aust said the drilling, from a small stretch of land in the marina area, was conducted without major incident.
A fire killed a man and badly burned another as the dried-up wells were being demolished, but Aust said the accident should have been preventable. The blaze was caused when a company without oil expertise was contracted to aid in the demolition, and oil vapors were ignited by a worker’s torch, he said.
“I was on that call, on the first engine to pull in, and there was a guy who looked like a bird, with wings. It was skin under his arms, hanging down,” Aust said.
“Are you okay?” Aust asked.
“Take care of my friend,” the man replied.
Paramedics worked on both men.
“We went to the other guy, and he was burned like a charcoal briquette. His fingers were gone, his toes were gone. I said ‘can you hear me?’ and he was talking, but he had no lips,’” Aust said.
That man died at a burn center hours later.
“It didn’t have anything to do with the drilling or the demolition — common sense would tell you that you can’t use a torch like that,” he said. “…Did we have a bad situation while they were drilling? No.”
The drilling site remains a “fenced off dirt lot,” Aust said.
Oil drilling also took place from an inland cite in Redondo, at about Prospect Avenue and 190th Street.
Aust said his parents living in south Hermosa received modest payments because the drilling passed under their home.
“The drilling went out a couple of miles and then fanned out into the bay,” Aust said. “They sold the oil rights under our house, and my parents got paid. It wasn’t a lot of money, but they got paid.”
Some Hermosa oil-drilling critics have said the drilling in Redondo has probably sucked dry any reserves that an oil company could recover. Drilling supporters have said improved techniques would help allow greater oil recovery, and the company, E&B Natural Resources Management Corp., would not have paid $30 million for drilling rights without evidence of ample oil.
E&B officials have said they were reviewing oil reports and plan to estimate a range of royalties that Hermosa could receive.
