The outbreak of World War I in 1914 coincided with the birth of the oil age in Fyzabad. The production coming out of the new wells at Forest Reserve exceeded all expectations. One particular well produced over 138,000 barrels between 1914 and 1917.
Christened “Helena” after the wife of the manager of Trinidad Leaseholds Ltd (TLL), Mr H Korrhaus, it still produces small quantities over a century after it was first drilled.
The heavy labour of clearing the dense forests and then preparing the drill sites exceeded the capacity of the local labour force which seemed to lack both the brawn and the numbers to successfully meet the needs of the oil companies. This was even more evident after 1919 when Apex Oilfields came on the scene with its formidable manager, Colonel Horace C B Hickling.
Hundreds of hardy workmen from Grenada and St Vincent settled in the Fyzabad district to remedy the labour problem. Capable of performing monumental feats of strength and endurance, they soon had progress underway.
Forests and cocoa trees gave way to huge camps of pre-fabricated bungalows which were meant to accommodate white expatriate staff. Apex and TLL employed a number of South Africans, ostensibly for their “experience in dealing with coloured labour.”
Fyzabad became a town of segregation with the working class living in appalling conditions—crowded and unsanitary—around the village itself, while the expatriate staff dwelt in relative comfort on the camps, having electricity, hospital services and other amenities. There were even chapels for the Roman Catholic and Anglican faiths so that the expatriates need not journey into Fyzabad to worship among the coloured folk.
In World War I was the first mechanised conflict in global history and it became apparent to the stakeholders in the oil industry that it had an important role to play in the matter as far as the supply of fuel went. In 1920, a major accident occurred at one of the wells near Fyzabad which blew out under pressure and ignited, sending streams of burning oil along the canals and waterways, causing much damage to property although it is not known if the incident resulted in fatalities.
The rapid expansion in oil exploration saw the formation of many small companies with “roughneck” operations. One of these was Dome Oilfields, established in the mid 1920s by Bunsee Partap and a syndicate of San Fernando businessmen to exploit a rich plot of oil land on Guapo Road.
Managed by a young local white driller named Robert Wade and cobbled together using outdated, used equipment, Dome Oilfields struck it big from the start and it promised enormous wealth to its owners.
On December 8, 1928, Dome Well number three was completed, capped with rusty valves and left unattended while Wade went to celebrate and his bosses did as well. By the time leaks were discovered in the capping, things were already beginning to get out of hand. Wade returned along with Partap, San Fernando merchant Ralph Sammy, and several others including Sammy’s wife and daughter.
While starting his Ford Model T to focus its lights on the well, Wade triggered an explosion by igniting the natural gas escaping from the well. In the resulting holocaust, 16 people were incinerated on the spot. The fire burned for several days, and just like in the 1920 explosion, a river of burning oil flowed from the site and set the land around aflame. The Dome Oilfield tragedy did not end here but has an interesting sequel which will be documented in another column by itself.
The oil wealth of Fyzabad did much to change the face of the village. Aside from the crowded huts occupied by the immigrant labourers and their families, the main business thoroughfare was transformed. Shops, bars and dancehalls sprang up almost overnight as Fyzabad became a boom town. There were two cinemas as well, one catering mainly to the working class and the other to the oilfield staff.
The Trinidad Government Railway had reached Siparia , just a couple miles away, in 1914 and large weekend excursion parties arrived in Fyzabad to take advantage of the good times. Not a few of the weekend visitors were women of dubious reputation from Port-of-Spain and environs who were coming down to meet their “keepers”—that is to say, oilfield workers who kept them flush with cash.
Nevertheless, wages remained relatively low for the labourers on the oilfield, which combined with the obvious discrepancy in living/working conditions between white and coloured employees, brought one firebrand Grenadian immigrant to the forefront.