Blaze at gas metering station sparks grass fire that shut Alberta highway

EDSON, Alta. – Yellowhead County in northern Alberta says a fire that prompted the closure of a major highway west of Edmonton involved a gas metering station.

The county says in a news release that its firefighters responded to a call for assistance for a reported structural fire on Monday near Range Road 185 and Highway 16.

On arrival, the release says it was determined a gas metering station was involved.

There has been no direct damage reported with nearby pipelines, it says, and Alberta Wildfire reported it responded to a small grass fire less than a hectare in size that wasn’t threatening any communities.

A spokesperson with the Alberta Energy Regulator says in an email that they were informed by RCMP that a natural gas pipeline approximately 15 km west of Edson was the source of the fire and that ATCO Gas and Pipelines Ltd. crews have gone to the site to manage the incident.

RCMP said travel in both directions of Highway 16 was closed due to the grass fire, but said in an update later Monday afternoon that eastbound lanes had reopened.

The county said in its release that it’s on-scene and working with FortisAlberta, TransMountain Pipeline, Atco Gas, AltaLink, Alberta Forestry and the RCMP.

Spokesman Stefan Felsing said there’s a great deal of energy infrastructure in the area and that he didn’t know whose metering station was involved in the fire.

There were no injuries reported.

Feature image by iStock.com/Kichigin