The well suffered a blowout Tuesday morning and the rig caught fire later Tuesday night when the leaking natural gas ignited, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement confirmed early Wednesday morning. BSEE said inspectors flying over the site soon after the blowout saw a light sheen covering an area about a half-mile by 50 feet (15 meters). She said it wasn't known what caused the gas to ignite. The workers were aboard a portable drilling rig known as a jackup rig, owned by Hercules Offshore Inc., which was a contractor for exploration and production company Walter Oil & Gas Corp. 
 
 Walter Oil & Gas reported to the BSEE that the rig was completing a "sidetrack well" _ a means of re-entering the original well bore, Angelico said. The blowout occurred as Walter Oil & Gas was completing work on a "sidetrack well" to prepare that well for new production, according to BSEE. Walter Oil and Gas Corp. engaged Wild Well Control Inc. to help control the leak, Noe said. This photo released by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement shows natural gas spewing from the Hercules 265 drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, Tuesday, July 23,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Map locates gas well accident in the Gulf of Mexico; 2c x 2 1/2 inches; 96.3 mm x 63 mm; (Associated Press) 
 
 Meanwhile, officials stressed that Tuesday's blowout wouldn't be close to as damaging as the 2010 BP oil spill, in which an oil rig, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers and eventually spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Jefferson Parish Council Chairman Chris Roberts said Wednesday morning that there are no changes expected to the Tarpon Rodeo because of the fire, except that there will be a 5-mile safe zone around the rig. BSEE had stated on Tuesday that a firefighting vessel was expected to be on location on Tuesday evening with both water and foam fire fighting abilities.
– A natural gas well is burning uncontrollably off the coast of Louisiana today, after a gas blowout caught fire yesterday, the AP reports. All 44 workers aboard evacuated when the gas leak started earlier in the day, and no one was aboard the well when it ignited at around 10:50pm local time, NBC News reports. It's unclear when or how the fire will be extinguished; personnel from Wild Well Inc. were called in last night, but determined that it wasn't safe enough to go within 200 feet of the well. A special firefighting boat has now been dispatched, a spokesman for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said. The bureau also reported seeing "a light sheen" on the water. Walter Oil & Gas Corp. were in the process of building a "sidetrack well" at the site when the blowout hit, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. Local officials say they're watching the well closely "because if there is a natural gas cloud that continues to flow, then you run the risk of an explosion." But, says a local parish president, "nothing that I have received to date has caused me to panic in any way or form. This is not going to be another BP oil spill."