Alberta Blaze Nears Enbridge Oil-Sands Terminal as Flames Spread

[bemildred]

Source: Bloomberg

Wildfires raging across northern Alberta for more than two weeks have come to within a kilometer of an Enbridge Inc. oil-sands transportation terminal as warm weather and wind spread the flames.

Fire crews are “working hard” with bulldozers to keep the blaze from the Cheecham Terminal, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said in a news conference Monday. Winds are now expected to be favorable in helping push the fire away from the facility, where crude is stored and shipped out from the Athabasca region about 75 kilometers (47 miles) southeast of the Fort McMurray oil-sands hub. Enbridge mainlines that carry crude from the region are still operating, Graham White, an Enbridge spokesman, said by e-mail.

“We have had really good success holding things there over the weekend,” Chad Morrison, an Alberta wildfire official, said at the news conference. “We hope to secure that site a little more and hope to have good luck there by the end of the day.”

---

The blazes have grown to about 2,840 square kilometers (1,100 square miles), almost the size of Rhode Island, from 2,410 on Friday as 40 kilometer-an-hour (25 mile-an-hour) winds and hot weather cause them to spread to the northeast, south and west, Barry Shellian, an Alberta Forestry spokesman, said by phone. Similar conditions, plus the possible threat of lightening starting new fires, are forecast for Monday, he said.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-16/alberta-blaze-nears-enbridge-oil-sands-terminal-as-flames-spread

[PersonNumber503602]

1. Wow, I thought they had that under control.

[laundry_queen]

2. It's never been under control

It merely shifted away from the city and the oil sands for some time and was moving in another direction (And that whole time it was still growing). Then, as what usually happens, the winds shifted. The main firefighting coordinators have said this blaze will continue for months if there is no substantial rainfall (meaning weeks of soaking rain). On the plus side, a lot of the fuel in the way of the new direction of the fire has already been burned up. And most of the oil sands plants have very large fire breaks, and their own firefighting forces. One of the neighborhoods in Ft. McMurray that was spared is under threat again, but the woods surrounding it were burned up so it's hopeful that they will be able to keep the fire away this time with less fuel leading the fire to the homes. There's a reason this fire has been nicknamed 'the beast'.

[PersonNumber503602]

11. Crazy stuff. I heard there another out of control fire a little bit north west of Edmonton

I know they have been evacuating people from that area too.

[laundry_queen]

13. Yes, between Fox Creek and Little Smoky.

About 1.5 hrs from me. There's also a large one in Northwestern BC by Fort St. John that had some evacuations of some other oil and gas camps. My friend, whose dad lost his apartment in Fort Mac, has an ex that was evacuated from those camps.

Thankfully, there is some rain in the forecast for these areas. Not enough, but several days of light showers. Better than nothing.

[Hugin]

3. That there is irony.

[bemildred]

4. Yes. When nature does irony, it tends to get messy. nt

[bemildred]

5. Oil sand work camps evacuated as Alberta wildfire moves north

A massive wildfire burning around the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray was growing and moving rapidly north late on Monday, forcing firefighters to shift their focus to protecting major oil sand facilities north of the city, officials said.

The sudden movement of the fire prompted the evacuation of some 4,000 people from work camps outside Fort McMurray, with all northbound traffic once again cut off at the city, the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo said.

Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO) and Syncrude Canada confirmed they had evacuated workers from the affected area. Their major facilities were under a precautionary notice with the fire still some 15 to 20 kms (10-12 miles) away, officials said.

A dozen work camps south of the major projects faced mandatory evacuation notices.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-wildfire-enbridge-idUSKCN0Y71ZT

[leveymg]

6. Tar-sand extraction leaves huge piles of exposed combustable materials. I haven't seen a word about

that. Seems a natural question to ask: have the pits been fueling this fire?

[bemildred]

7. I saw the issue raised once. From what I read it has not got "there" yet.

On the other hand, I don't know what's going to stop it. But I don't spend time on it. I'm mostly watching the election, or whatever it is we are doing now, it's more like a war between howler monkeys than anything else that comes to mind.

I was thinking though that this does tend to increase the bankruptcy rate in the unconventional oil business too.

Enbridge seems likely to be spectacular too, if it gets there.

Canada oil sands producers disrupted anew as wildfire shifts north

---

On Monday, the blaze continued to burn uncontrolled, covering 285,000 hectares (704,000 acres), officials said. By Monday evening it was moving 30 to 40 meters (98 to 131 feet) per minute and had jumped a critical firebreak, where plants and trees had been removed to stop it from spreading, north of the city to push into the oil sand camp areas.

TransAlta Corp's TA.TO Poplar Creek cogeneration power plant, which provides power to Suncor, was also shut by early Tuesday due to the wildfire, according to the provincial electric system operator.

http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCAKCN0Y71ZT

[leveymg]

8. I don't see this fire stopping until its used up all the combustable materials in its path

That could be a long, long time, in that area.

Also, the air must be dense with hydrocarbons. Off the scale toxic. How can anyone stick around long enough to fight this thing?

[bemildred]

9. Yep, it could go until Winter.

We get them here in LA that run for months, and we don't have near as much fuel as they do up there.

[laundry_queen]

12. Most of the production areas

are behind large fire breaks (think no vegetation at all) and each company has their own private firefighting force. The Fort Mac firefighters managed to save most of the town even though the forest comes right up to the edge, I'm pretty sure the oil producing plants will not be burned up if the companies can help it. I'm not sure about any by-products that have been discarded, but from what I understand in the media is if the materials are still on site they will be protected, and generally they aren't that flammable anyway. I'm taking that all with a grain of salt, considering I live in the province and they likely won't tell us the worst case scenario, but I've also seen some of these companies work and they are far from inept. I know some people will laugh at this but Alberta has decent environmental regulations - my ex has worked in oil and gas in both BC and Alberta and he says the Alberta regs were far stricter a few years ago, although BC - where he is currently - has really caught up. And both provinces have better regs than the US (according to him).

But anyhow - no, the pits have not been fueling this fire. It's been a very very dry boreal forest that is made to burn, and was long overdue for a burn in this area. There have been other large fires popping up in other areas of the province and in BC as well. It's just a really hot, dry El nino year.

[hunter]

10. Canada wildfire: Oil workers urged to leave Fort McMurray camps

Around 12,000 people have been urged to leave Canada's oil sands camps near the fire-hit town of Fort McMurray as a resurgent wildfire heads towards them.

A regional official told the BBC that 8,000 people were given precautionary evacuation orders late on Monday, in addition to some 4,000 who had already been advised to leave.

More than 80,000 people fled the fire that hit Fort McMurray two weeks ago.

Air pollution in the Alberta city is still at dangerously high levels.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36309184

[bemildred]

14. Fort McMurray fire sweeps east through northern oilsands sites

The Fort McMurray wildfire has destroyed one of the oilsands camps north of the city and is roaring eastward toward others in its path.

The fire destroyed all 665 units at Blacksand Executive Lodge, which provided temporary housing for workers in nearby oil facilities, on Tuesday morning. By Tuesday afternoon, flames were at the edges of the Noralta Lodge camp, just a few kilometres east of Blacksand.

CBC News also obtained photos of flames at the edges of an AFD Petroleum facility, about five kilometres northwest of Noralta.

Officials said the fire was expected to move east on Tuesday and would likely jump Highway 63 south of Noralta Lodge.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-oilsands-sites-fire-1.3585921?cmp=rss