Air quality alert cancelled after fire at eastern Alberta oil lease site

Air quality is no longer a concern for people in the eastern Alberta county of Minburn, following a fiery blaze at an oil lease site Tuesday.

A spokesperson with the Alberta Energy Regulator said Lycos Energy Inc. notified the AER at 11:40 a.m. of the fire, which was at an oil lease site 23 kilometres southeast of Mannville.

The fire involved four crude oil tanks at a privately leased site, according to Minburn County officials.

Fire and emergency response teams from Minburn County, Vermilion River, Wainwright, Vegreville and Irma responded to the fire. The lease site owner told the Minburn County fire chief that its contract suppression specialists were also dispatched from Blackfalds.

“Due to the magnitude of the fire, we needed to call in additional resources,” said Mike Fundytus, director of protective services with Minburn County.

People at the site were taken to a staging area while crews began a defensive attack.

Crews then began to defensively cool the unaffected tanks while waiting for the private contractor to arrive. Private water haulers were then sourced and used to help douse the fire.

Fundytus said they aren’t equipped to handle industrial fires.

“We provide support to them in tackling the fire. Everything basically was done by a private contractor, we just started the initial defensive operations, ensuring it wasn’t going to spread and that the crew on sit was evacuated,” he explained.

An Alberta Emergency Alert was issued just after 5:15 p.m. Tuesday due to toxic smoke coming from the fire.

“We figured it would be good to get an alert out there for a shelter in place. Everyone from miles around could see the smoke. Just to let everyone know that something was going on and we had a handle on it,” Fundytus said.

0:39 Air quality alert cancelled after fire at eastern Alberta oil lease site

Video from the scene showed massive plumes of smoke coming from the fire.

Austin Prior was feeding cows on his family farm when he saw the emergency vehicles going back and forth — it was a lot more traffic than he’s used to.

“I just seen a bunch of smoke, it was pretty black. Every once in a while you see the big fire balls coming up… It was quite the event.”

Roger Baker, who works at a convenience store in Mannville, watched the fire unfold.

“Just black smoke. … It was black, very black,” he said. “A lot of firefighters were out there, a lot of water was being put on it.”

People in a number of surrounding areas were asked to close their windows and shelter in place.

The fire was contained at around 6:45 p.m., the AER said. The emergency alert was cancelled just after 7 p.m. Minburn County officials said the fire was out by about 9 p.m.

“We are grateful for the diligent efforts of emergency responders in successfully containing and extinguishing the fire,” Minburn County CAO Pat Podoborozny said.

“Now, in collaboration with Alberta Energy Regulator and the lease site owners, we are focused on the cleanup phase to ensure the community’s safety and the preservation of our environment.”

The AER said Wednesday it had inspectors at the site. It is reviewing the cause and circumstances of the fire to determine if the company met all requirements leading up to the incident.

“The regulator will continue to monitor the company’s activities related to incident cleanup, to ensure requirements are met,” the AER said in a statement.

The AER said its priority during an incident like this is to ensure companies take “effective and immediate action to protect public safety and the environment.

“Our role is to monitor and oversee the company’s response, so that impacts to the public, property, wildlife and the environment are understood and mitigated, while ensuring all public safety and environmental requirements are met.”

People were asked Tuesday evening to avoid the area as emergency crews worked to “guarantee the safety of everyone involved.”

There is no word yet on the cause of the fire. No injuries were reported.