Near Miss - Propane Tank B.L.E.V.E. Lac St. Anne County

On Friday December 9, 2011 at approx. 03:00 hrs. Lac Ste. Anne County District Two (Alberta Beach) responded to a 57D03 Explosion-Commercial Structure at Waters Edge, a small beach front community near Gunn. At 03:22 the first Engine arrived on scene and established the attack staging area. The second engine was on scene at 03:25 from District One (Onoway) and established a water supply source from a dry hydrant to the lake. Tenders from Districts One, Two, Three (Rich Valley) and Five (Darwell) arrived shortly after to establish a Tanker Hitch water supply to the engine. A defensive attack was established as the building was fully involved when crews arrived, hand lines were deployed, utilities (power company and Ste. Anne Gas) were dispatched, and the first crew was assigned by Incident Command to do a 360 Safety Recon. This crew proceeded from west to east on the south end of the building. Flames could be seen from the northeast corner of the building indicative of a ruptured gas line. When they reached the east end of the building they were stopped because of a downed power line. As they were backing away from the power line they heard a high pitch whistling noise for “a few seconds” then an explosion occurred with flames 200 feet in the air that were seen from Onoway 10Km away.

There was no natural gas service to the area of the fire, the venting gas was propane from the PRV, and the further indicators were of course when the B.L.E.V.E. occurred. We were fortunate, no one was injured, the tank ruptured through the top rather than the ends where usually most tanks are the weakest.

In the incident investigation afterwards it was identified the only thing we could have done different was to have a preplan in place. With time demands on our volunteers it is unreasonable to ask them to preplan for the entire County, so the suggestion was made to develop a self-preplan for acreages/farms and industrial areas and send them out with the tax notices. Then we could develop a data base for our districts. Any other suggestions would be readily accepted.

Jim Thompson
Fire Services Manager
Lac Ste. Anne County
Toll Free:  1-866-880-5722 (LSAC)
Phone:  780-785-3411, ext. 267
Fax:  780-785-2359
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