Last Tuesday, the residents of the small rural community of Bobtown in the far southwestern corner of Pennsylvania woke up to a horrible shock -- the sound of a massive explosion in their backyards. The source of the blast and the intensely hot fire that followed was a Chevron fracking well that had been set to begin production, but instead shot orange flames high into the air and gave off loud hissing sounds that could be heard hundreds of yards away.



John Kuis, 57, of nearby Dilliner told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that at 6:45 a.m., his dog growled, then the earth rumbled, and finally: "Then the house just sort of shook and there was a big loud bang." Another neighbor told the paper that the fracking explosion "sounded like a jet engine going 5 feet above your house."