I doubt people were vaporized by burning oil as they stepped out of their house.
My grandfather was working on an oil rig that hit a gas pocket. It ignited. He lasted 2 weeks. 2 horrible weeks.
He damn sure wasn't vaporized.
/johnny
OK, they were incinerated.
I don’t think the fire chief meant, “vaporized”, as in an instantaneous combustion. He probably meant it in terms of the degree of combustion. Once the people in the town were set afire by the oil, they were consumed until nothing substantial was left.
I think we can also accept some degree of exaggeration considering these people were ones he knew, and possibly were related to.
Sorry about your grandfather, Johnny. None of us wants anything like that to happen. I know, I work out there.
Depends on how big the fireball was
About 30 years ago in Phoenix there was a backhoe operator that hit a natural-gas pipeline; he was incinerated where he sat.
But I doubt he was vaporized.