

Workers in Shanghai were amazed to see that they had accidentally ignited a fire from a fresh water spring.

Experts believe that the workers, who were drilling a well, accidentally tapped into a pocket of natural gas deep underground. They didn’t know what they had done until one of them lit up a cigarette and ignited the fire, which began burning from a fresh water spring next to the drilling well.

This phenomenon of fire and water is similar to a common problem related to gas drilling, and particularly fracking. In parts of USA, tap water has been contaminated by natural gas, which ignites in the same way as this spring in Shanghai.

A similar phenomenon recently occurred at a construction site in Urumqi, Xinjiang, where a mysterious burning pit opened up and was dubbed by web users as a “hole to hell”.

by Daniel Cunningham