By Kurtis Doering

Still no cause for Prud’homme gas fire, damage upped to $11 million

Dec 10, 2014 | 5:57 AM

October’s natural gas fire at the TransGas storage facility near Prud’homme caused $11 million in damage as it lit up the night sky and forced 13 people from their homes for the better part of a week.

Two months after specialized fire teams helped extinguish the inferno, SaskEnergy spokesperson Dave Burdenuik says the facility is now operating at the same capacity it was during winter 2013.

The station was operating at partial capacity about two weeks after the fire went out. Temporary wiring and cabling will allow the company to serve almost all of central Saskatchewan through the winter, said Burdenuik.

The damage estimate was initially pegged at $5-10 million, including $2 million in lost gas. That estimate has since been upped to $11 million. However, SaskEnergy is still only on the hook for a $500,000 insurance deductible.

“The heat was so intense … so you did have wiring that melted, even within valves and surrounding equipment, you would have the lubricant inside valves that would be baked, and any of the rubber mouldings or composite fittings that were around … were heat damaged,” Burdenuik said.

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Permanent repairs will be done in the spring. At that time, crews can flood the affected cavern to displace the remaining gas, and investigate the casing pipe believed to be the cause of the fire.

Burdenuik said SaskEnergy still feels as though the technology involved in cavern storage is safe.

Nobody was injured in the fire.

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