Comment by a rural Albertan:
HUGE fire, little lease. Oil tanks. WTF happened? They should be impervious.
Another interesting development in the questionably developed oil field.
Premier Danielle Smith and her extreme right evangelical racist misogynistic anti-science anti-environment pro-polluter Take Back Alberta (into the cave) party, banned alternate energies in Alberta in 2023 (too dirty and dangerous – ya, to fossil fuel’s polluting profits).
That’s Alberta’s Premier, Danielle Smith, sucking Canada Dry in a photo she tweeted same day as the Lycos explosion and fire. I don’t know who created this visual but it’s perfect. Alberta, in stage 4/5 drought emergency, still lets frac’ers frac, permanently removing vital water from the hydrogeological cycle while our premier yaks about bringing back plastic straws.
Emergency alert cancelled for area near fire at central Alberta oil lease site, Alert cancelled shortly after 7 p.m. by CBC News with files from Aaron Sousa, Jan 30, 2024
An emergency alert issued Tuesday night for communities in east-central Alberta near a fire at an oil lease site has been cancelled.
The alert was initially issue for air quality due to toxic smoke from a fire at an oil lease site about 23 kilometres southeast of Mannville, Alta. The update posted shortly after 7 p.m. MT says crews have the fire under control.
“There is no longer any toxic smoke being released from the fire,” the alert said. The community is 170 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.
The directive to shelter in place has been cancelled, but the public should continue to avoid the area for the safety of the crews working onsite to resolve the situation, the alert says.
A news release from the County of Minburn said four crude oil tanks on a privately leased site caught fire in the area of Township Road 480 and Range Road 81.
“Emergency crews have effectively extinguished the fire at the oil site located 23 km south of Mannville, ” the county said.
“As a result, there is no longer any release of toxic smoke from the incident. The diligent efforts of the emergency teams from the County of Minburn, County of Vermilion River, MD of Wainwright, Town of Vegreville and the Village of Irma have led to a swift containment of the situation.”
A statement from the Alberta Energy Regulator said Lycos Energy Inc. notified the AER around 1:30 p.m. about an oil tank fire occurring on a lease near Wainwright. The fire was put out at around 6:45 p.m., AER said.
“AER inspectors remain at site actively monitoring the situation and collaborating with emergency response and local officials to ensure the safety of the public,” reads the statement.
“The AER will continue to oversee this incident including the company’s response and remediation efforts.”
I checked AER’s incident dashboard at 2 pm today, one day after the alert. Nothing there about this explosion.
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