One person was killed after an explosion at an oil and natural gas well near Bolivar, OH, in Tuscarawas County, on Monday morning.

The Bolivar Volunteer Fire Department’s Lt. Patrick Eddy told NGI’s Shale Daily that a large battery of above-ground oil storage tanks exploded at around 9:45 a.m. EDT. Eddy said the fatality was a male employee of the company that owned the well.

“He was painting,” Eddy said. “He was doing some painting on the tank.”

Although Eddy did not know the name of the company that owns the well or have any additional information about the victim, news reports said the well is owned by MKE Producing Inc., a private company based in Canton, OH, and that the victim was a 19-year-old man.

Eddy said it took firefighters 10 minutes to put out the blaze, which consumed about three acres of grassland surrounding the well site. He said the force of the explosion threw the tank battery about 125 yards from its original location. Eddy said the wellhead for an oil and gas well was located about 20 yards from the site of the explosion, but it was unaffected by the blast.

“Upon arrival we were the first engine in,” Eddy said. “There were very large volumes of fire and smoke. It was a pretty large incident.”

Eddy said firefighters from Zoar, Mineral City, Dover, New Philadelphia and Magnolia also responded to the explosion. The incident occurred about two miles south of Bolivar in the Wilkshire Hills subdivision along Ohio Route 212.