The Alberta government says natural gas been restored to about 300 homes in Grande Prairie County after a fire disrupted the area’s supply on a bitterly cold Monday.
At around 7 p.m., the government sent out an update to say while gas had been restored, ATCO crews were still going door-to-door to impacted homes to relight gas appliances and the process could take “several hours.”
County officials said customers who do not want to wait for ATCO in their homes because of very cold temperatures can call the gas company to make arrangements at 780-310-5678. Calls after 7 p.m. can be made to ATCO’s emergency dispatch at 1-800-511-3447.
The Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership has opened a warming centre in Evergreen Park for residents and their pets impacted by the outage. County officials said people coming to the centre are being asked to bring basic necessities in case “they have to stay out of their homes for an extended period.” At around 9 p.m. on Monday, officials said the warming centre would close at midnight and anyone who needs a warm place to stay after that should call the Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership at 780-296-4172.
The Alberta government issued an emergency alert Monday afternoon to say an “event” disrupted the natural gas supply to about 300 homes south of Highway 670 and Range Road 52.
On its Facebook page, the County of Grande Prairie said the issue was a “farm tap unit” that had caught fire at around 7 a.m. and that as a result, the Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership had been activated.
The county said the fire had been extinguished but fire crews remained at the scene.
According to officials, the following subdivisions have been impacted by the gas outage:
- Brookside
- Meadow Brook
- Aspen Ridge
- Sunnybrook
- Eastland Acres
- Triple L Trailer Court
- Autumn Wood
- Arthur Lane
- Sunridge Estates
Government officials called on residents impacted by the gas outage to take precautions: make sure homes are properly ventilated if using wood-burning appliances, do not use barbecues or gas-fuelled space heaters to heat homes and do not sit in idling vehicles for extended periods of time.
According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, a farm tap is where people can get gas from a transmission pipeline, usually located in a rural area where “access to gas distribution system is not available.”
READ MORE: Extreme cold warnings in place for much of northern Alberta
The gas disruption came as Environment Canada issued an extreme cold warning to parts of northern Alberta, including Grande Prairie County. According to the weather agency, it was -25 C in the area as of around 3 p.m.
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