Lightning struck an oilfield battery about 12 miles from the town of Sloughton, Saskatchewan, resulting in thick plumes of black smoke for a number of hours.
“It looks way worse than it is,” fire chief Pat Slater said on June 27. “It’s pretty sensationalized when you see this massive cloud of smoke, but it’s a pretty narrow plume and it’s quite high in the atmosphere so it really doesn’t bother too many people.”
According to Slater, the operators of the oilfield had control of the scene and staff monitored the fire overnight and the morning of June 27 “just to make sure there was no further damage done or spread anywhere.”
“Basically we just secured the area and blocked off the road so nobody could come in or out and kept everybody safe,” he said.
Fire crews determined the fire had created a “nothing-left-to-save-situation,” and said that because it was an oilfield site, the company policy was to “let it burn” as trying to put it out would have created additional danger and perhaps jeopardized the safety of those fighting the fire. There was also a berm around the tanks, which prevented the fire from spreading to neighbouring fields.
“With a berm around them there are no massive floods going out doing environmental damage, it’s all contained to the immediate area inside that berm,” said the fire chief. He added that lightning often strikes oil batteries.
“It’s kind of normal for these things,” he said. “When they get hit by lightning this was something that you would expect to happen.”
The operator of the site told fire crews there were no propane tanks near the battery, and staff on site followed safety procedures and shut down the wells.
“Once they do that, the fire dissipates itself quite quickly,” said Slater. Fire crews remained on scene for approximately three hours and returned on June 27 to extinguish additional hot spots.
