EDMONTON, CANADA
Access to Syncrude Canada’s Mildred Lake oilsands site has been restricted following a fire at the northern Alberta facility Saturday morning.
A spokesperson with Syncrude Canada said there was a “process incident” sometime before 8 a.m. Saturday, which led to the fire. It was quickly extinguished by the company’s fire department, Will Gibson said over the phone from Fort McMurray Saturday morning.
“It was all in an area of our Mildred Lake upgrading complex, which is a large area, but it was contained to one particular area,’ said Gibson. “Work is still going on at some parts of our site, but obviously the area that was affected by the fire, that area has been frozen so we can start an investigation.
“I’m not aware of any impacts to air quality, adverse impacts to air quality and that’s something that we would be monitoring.”
The site, located 40 kilometres north of Fort MuMurray, was only open to “essential Syncrude personnel” on Saturday. At this point it’s not known exactly what caused the fire. Gibson said it was too early to tell if production would be impacted.
“It’s going to take time to assess what, if any, impact there will be on front line or production.”
Saturday’s fire at the Mildred Lake facility comes about three weeks after 30 blue herons were found dead at the site. A few days later the company was issued an environmental protection order form the Alberta Energy Regulator.
No one was injured in the incident and all workers were accounted for. Gibson said the restricted access to the site made for some traffic tie ups north of Fort McMurray Saturday morning. Explosion at Syncrude oilsands site
by 660News Staff
Posted August 29, 2015
John Knox @ Rock 97.9
Summary
Explosion at Syncrude oilsands site
There are no reports of injuries after an early morning explosion at an oilsands plant in northern Alberta owned by Syncrude Canada.
The explosion happened between 5:30 and 6 Saturday morning.
According to listeners to our sister station in Fort McMurray, contractors are being turned away at the gates, but Syncrude employees are being allowed on site.
Listeners also say traffic is backed up on Highway 63 just north of the municipality.
It sounds like all staff at the plant have been accounted for.
This comes just a day after the Alberta Energy Regulator ordered Nexen Energy to shut down 95 of the company’s plants due to compliance issues with pipeline maintenance.