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Sulphur fire at Alta. gas plant sparks brief evacuation order

Article online since August 15th 2008, 23:00
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ZAMA CITY, Alta. - A state of emergency was called in a small northwestern Alberta community when crew that was removing a pile of leftover sulphur at a gas plant accidentally started a fire.

RCMP says the fire started in a front-end loader the crew at the Apache Gas plant near Zama City were using on Friday.

The flames then spread to the sulphur, which was a byproduct of a process that removed it from deadly hydrogen sulphide.

David French of Apache says hydrogen sulphide wasn't a major concern, but there were fears the fire could produce dangerous levels of sulphur dioxide.

The company set up monitoring stations and roadblocks, and RCMP say Mackenzie County officials ordered an evacuation for the approximately 250 residents of Zama City.

The order was lifted Friday afternoon after the fire was contained, while three workers from the site were taken to hospital as a precaution.

"While the block was burning, the major concern for us was sulphur dioxide, it was not H2S," said French.

"None of our monitors registered sulphur dioxide during the time. And ultimately, after a couple of hours, we had the fire completely under control."

French said the process that removes sulphur from hydrogen sulphide is no longer used, and that hydrogen sulphide is now reinjected into the ground to produce oil.

The sulphur that caught fire on Friday, French explained, was being removed from the site for disposal by the workers.

"The loader was helping to break the block to have it removed," French said, noting that investigators will be working to determine the cause of the fire.

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