With the prospect of a surge in natural gas wells in Butler County's future, firefighters are preparing for the possibility of well accidents such as fires or explosions.

"These things are dangerous," Melvin Bliss, coordinator of public safety training at Butler County Community College, said of well accidents. "They can be killers."

County officials, including Bliss, considered these possible dangers long before a well drilling explosion occurred Monday in Moundsville, W.Va. The fire chief there acknowledged his department was caught off guard when injured well workers, who are better trained to respond to accidents, left the rig explosion site to seek medical treatment.

Bliss said, "We've been planning for about two years. This Marcellus Shale is what is really shaking the world up here. ... There is a potential for a lot of wells."

Marcellus Shale is a rock formation under about two-thirds of Pennsylvania and portions of New York and West Virginia and is believed to hold trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection's website

It's long been considered prohibitively expensive to access. But recent advances in drilling technology and rising natural gas prices have generated a scramble to get to it.

According to the DEP, which tracks well permitting, there have been 126 wells drilled in Butler County between the year 2000 and June. Fifteen of those wells were drilled this year and 12 of them were identified as related to Marcellus Shale.

However, there's no way to tell how many more wells are planned or actually will be drilled as permits are not necessary until the work begins.

But fire officials are not waiting for a problem to get prepared.

The fire school at BC3 years ago formed an advisory board to consider how best to train responders on well related issues in Western Pennsylvania.

And already last week the fire school sent its first class of 30 students to the Venango/Crawford County Fire School in Cambridge Springs for specialized training on fighting fires related to well accidents.

John Bauer, president of that school, said the program there includes a first day of training at Slippery Rock University, and a second day of hands-on training held at a facility specially outfitted with well drilling props, including a well head, a pump jack and a dike detention area.

Officials simulate fires by feeding liquid propane through the props.

"It's just like you would see in the field," said Bauer, who is a firefighter with the Cochranton Fire Department, which has about 500 wells in the area.

Although this was the first full class from the Butler County Fire School to train at the facility, individual departments, including the Bruin Volunteer Fire Department, sent representatives earlier.

The Venango/Crawford facility, which has been operational since September, is believed to be the only one of its kind in the state. However, plans are in the works to offer the same, if not more to include a drilling rig, at the Butler school within a year. Bliss said officials hope oil and gas companies will defray the $40,000 cost for such a project.

"They recognize the possible danger," he said.

Bliss, who participated in extinguishing well fires during his 20-year tenure in the Warren County fire department, said the well operators are responders "best friends" in emergency situations.

Oil and gas wells, Bliss said, have a drip gas product that is extremely volatile and is difficult to extinguish. A complicated process of valves and switches, often unique to the company drilling, is necessary, he said.

So often the responders' best plan of attack is to secure the scene and call the well owners.

Bauer said that during training the importance of valves is stressed. "If you don't know what it does, don't touch it," he said.

Responders should treat the scene more like a hazardous substance than a car or house fire, Bliss said.

"It's not your average fire," said Mark Lauer, president of the Butler County Fire Chiefs Association of a well fire. "It's a whole different animal."

The fire chiefs association is in full support of the training efforts, Lauer said.

"I've lived around them my whole life, and they still scare me," said Lauer. "It's very complex."

In addition to firefighters, industry officials also will be welcome to the training, Bliss said.

About three months ago, a safety awareness meeting was held in Butler County for landowners considering well-lease agreements. Bliss said about 150 people attended.

Danny Holmes, chief of the Moundsville, W.Va., fire department that responded to the explosion there, said that area, like Butler County, is starting to see a surge in gas drilling.

His department had no specialized training and had never discussed the issue with drilling officials.

"I do not want to make it sound like we aren't trained. We train all the time," Holmes said. "But as a firefighter your mindset is to go in and put the fire out. Is that a good thing in a well fire? Sometimes not."

He recommends interaction between the first responders and the people in charge of the wells.