By paNOW Staff

Fire at natural gas station continues to burn

Oct 13, 2014 | 9:23 AM

A fire at a TransGas natural gas storage facility near Prud’homme continues to shoot 18 metre flames.

TransGas spokesperson Dave Burdeniuk said the fire and an explosion started at 10:10 a.m. on Saturday when gas released from the wellhead of one of the underground storage caverns was sparked off.

Members of the Prud’homme and Vonda fire departments were called out to the scene, but the fire is expected could potentially burn for several days, fueled by the underground reservoir.

“We have called in a company called Safety Boss, they are out of Calgary, and they specialize in putting out fires at oil wells and gas wells,” Burdeniuk said.

Burdeniuk said that although TransGas employees are trained in how to respond,  the company has not seen a similar fire since 1964. They have had gas leaks before with the most recent in 2012, according to Burdeniuk.

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“Safety Boss has actually suited up a couple of people and walked into the flame with heat shields and gone as close as they can to the damaged wellhead to have a look at it,” Burdeniuk said. “We know that because the flames are first coming out sideways, most of that wellhead remains in place. That’s good because it gives us a piece of equipment to work with.”

TransGas has brought in addition equipment including heavy construction equipment, water tankers, and water hoses in preparation for the first attempt at shutting off the gas.

Burdeniuk said he does not expect any interruption in natural gas service because of the fire. The facility near Prud’homme is one of two major suppliers to Saskatoon providing half the natural gas used in the winter time, but demand has not been very high of late.

“This time of year there’s not really a draw on the facility. We’re more getting this facility ready for winter,” he said, adding residents currently get their gas supply right from the main pipe, not the reserves. “We don’t start to pull gas out of the caverns until it starts to get to -15C.”

Burdeniuk said the six other natural gas caverns at the facility have been shut down but will be available if the cold temperatures come early. He added the fire should not impact their ability to supply gas for the winter.

“What we’ve done is we’ve has 11 major construction projects to bring more gas into the province, including that central region and Saskatoon,” he said.

TransGas has also been monitoring the air quality in the vicinity of the fire and Burdeniuk said they have not detected any contaminants. After the fire is put out, there will be an investigation as well as work to be done on the surrounding building.

“The steel building, the structure over top the cavern wellhead, it has actually been very heavily damaged. The flames are quite hot and quite intense right there so the building, the steal itself has actually melted,” Burdeniuk said. “The flames are very, very hot. The cavern wellhead building will need to be replaced.”

TransGas operations manager Peter Maclachlan said the fire is contained, and the safest thing to do is let the rest of the reserves burn off.

Meanwhile, TransGas along with the RCMP have evacuated a two-mile radius of the site, affecting four homes and 13 people. People are advised to stay clear of the area until it is deemed safe.

The facility is typically unmanned on the weekends, and nobody appears to be injured.

No major highways or grid roads are affected by the evacuations, though access roads to the site have been blocked.

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