Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Hay River (Mar 25/02) - A fire at Hay River's largest fuel storage depot did not come close to setting ablaze 12 million litres of diesel at the site, according to company officials.

The fire at Midnight Petroleum, an Imperial Oil agent, started shortly after midnight March 18, and burned for three hours.

A seized bearing in a year-old pump has been identified as the cause, says Doug Caldwell, Imperial's operations and environmental manager. The pump has been shipped to Edmonton, where it will be stripped to find out what happened, say company officials.

Imperial and assistant fire marshal Kellie Mitchell praised the response of volunteer firefighters, whom they say responded within 10 minutes of an alarm.

Just a few months ago, the fire department and Midnight Petroleum teamed up for a simulated fire.

"That paid off in spades," said Caldwell.

"It was a good practice run. They knew the facility and the layout."

The pumphouse is set between two sets of huge storage tanks, 11 in total.

Since the fire, diesel has been pumped directly from another pumphouse at a nearby rail yard, bypassing the damaged building. The accident comes at Midnight Oil's peak time of year. Imperial's Hay River agent Marc Miltenberger said this time of year, 90 per cent of his fuel is loaded on trucks bound for the ice road to diamond mines.

He said the amount of fuel handled by Midnight Oil has doubled since diamond mine activity began kicking into high gear a couple years ago.