By Roger Alford
The Associated Press

BULAN, Ky. - A third man has died as a result of an explosion at an eastern Kentucky oil well.

William Douglas Bell, 37, of Helenwood, Tenn., died Thursday at University Hospital in Cincinnati, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Two other men, Bill Chandler, 36, of Lost Creek, Ky., and Patrick Jeffers, 29, of Winfield, Tenn., were killed Wednesday. Chandler died at the scene of the explosion. Jeffers was flown to the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, where he died.

Bulan is about 200 miles southeast of Cincinnati, near Hazard.

Investigators were still looking into what sparked the explosion Wednesday. Flames and heat from a fire that raged for more than 24 hours may have destroyed any clues to the cause.

"We may never know," said Rick Bender, director of the Kentucky Division of Oil and Gas, the agency that regulates the state's drilling industry. "It depends on whether the person in the hospital can give us any insight into what happened."

The well exploded into flames shortly after 2 p.m. on Wednesday, with a force that shook nearby homes. It was still belching flames and black smoke Thursday as firefighters in protective suits worked to extinguish the blaze.

Perry County Emergency Management Director Charles Colwell said heat from the fire was worsened by splotches of scalding crude shooting out of the well. He said crews would have to return today to try to put out the fire.

Bender said such explosions at oil and gas wells are rare in Kentucky, despite rapid growth in the drilling industry. He said the state issued permits for 1,200 new wells in the state last year, and that he expects an additional 1,500 to be issued by the end of this year.

"It's a dangerous industry, and these types of things can happen," Bender said.

Two drilling company workers were injured in March 2001 in Maher, W.Va., in a gas well explosion. They were drilling a well in a rural area just east of the Kentucky border near Williamson, W.Va.

In February, a crew escaped injury in an oil well fire near Masontown, Pa. The well was a geyser of flames and smoke. Houston-based Boots & Coots International Well Control Inc. put that fire out. That is the same company working to extinguish the Bulan fire.

Colwell said about 25 homes and businesses were evacuated because six crude-oil tanks, each in excess of 10,000 gallons, were at risk of catching fire.

Mark York, spokesman for the Kentucky Cabinet for Environmental and Public Protection, said a crew from Journey Operating LLC was servicing the well when the explosion occurred. The Houston-based company has a Leslie County office in Wooten and services gas wells throughout eastern Kentucky.

Kentucky State Police Trooper Scott Hopkins said the workers were pulling tubing out of the well and replacing a pump when the explosion occurred. He said he doesn't know if that might have created a spark.

"It's just too early to make any determination," Hopkins said.

John Gabbard, executive director of the Kentucky Oil and Gas Association, said companies have been taking advantage of high natural gas and crude oil prices by drilling wells in Kentucky and other Appalachian states where there are huge reserves.

"It's the busiest time I can remember in years," Gabbard said. "It's a price-driven thing."