Photo of the inferno by Jeff French, Fire Chief in Emerson and also a firefighter/paramedic in Winnipeg.
Pipeline explosion: ‘You could see it for miles — and hear it’
Winnipeg Sun
First posted: Sunday, September 06, 2015
The explosion of a natural gas pipeline sent flames stories into the sky and could be seen for several miles on both sides of the border Saturday night.
In a statement issued Sunday, TransCanada said the fire began at 9 p.m. at the St. Vincent Compressor Station in Kittson County, Minn., just across the border from Ridgeville, Manitoba.
“You could see it for miles — and hear it,” said Emerson-Franklin councillor Doug Johnston, who is also an Emerson volunteer firefighter and was near the scene. “It was about 10 miles east of Emerson and a quarter of a mile into the U.S. It blew up in the middle of the a field, which was the best place to blow up.”
Residents from two farms near the explosion on the Canadian side of the border were evacuated, Johnston said.
Although summoned, the Emerson fire department never actually crossed the border.
“We would never have fought that fire,” Johnston said. “It was too big. If you've seen photos of it, it looks like a big mushroom in the sky.”
The Emerson firefighters were there to make sure that the fire did spread back up the pipeline.
"At 1:10 a.m. central time, the fire was completely extinguished,” the TransCanada statement said. “The facility has been shut down and the pipeline has been isolated, ensuring no more gas is flowing into the station. The cause of the fire is not yet known and no injuries have been reported at this time.”
Johnston said the explosion did not affect utilities in the town of Emerson.
This story will be updated.
TransCanada pipelines in Manitoba:
Seven months since Manitoba's last pipeline explosion
An explosion and fire at a TransCanada Pipelines valve site near St. Pierre-Jolys left several thousand people without power Jan. 25.
The explosion happened early that Saturday morning, sending a massive fireball into the dark sky.
The flames were out by Saturday afternoon and there were no reported injuries.
But the supply of natural gas had to be shut off, leaving nearly 4,000 people without heat in -20 C.
TransCanada said it shut down the Emerson Lateral portion of the Canadian Mainline natural gas pipeline system due to the explosion and vented the remaining gas. It said trucks containing compressed natural gas were being sent to metering stations to provide gas to some critical services such as personal care homes and hospitals, as well as schools or churches being used as emergency warming centres.
St. Pierre-Jolys is about 70 km northeast of Emerson.
— The Canadian Press
- The Great Lakes pipeline
- begins at Emerson at the Minnesota border
- runs to the Michigan-Ontario border at St. Clair
- transports over 2.2 billion cubic feet of pipeline quality natural gas per day
- 2,115 miles of dual, high-pressure pipelines
- connects to natural gas shipped from Alberta
- operational since 1967
- one of 39 pipeline border-crossings between the U.S. and Canada (another 31 transport oil, and 10-15 more are not operational)
- Source: Great Lakes Pipeline
Pipeline safety
- corporations can be fined $100,000 a day by Canada for violations
- the federal government recently funded a 50% increase in inspections
- natural gas transmission pipelines transport gas at 1000 psi or greater
- compressor stations, like St. Vincent, are placed at select intervals. These compressors are often land-based jet engines, and are typically fuelled by the natural gas within the pipeline itself.
- Source: National Energy Board
