Oil tank catches fire after lightning strike
Fire started around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday and was out by 5 a.m.
Severe weather continues to cause problems across the province.
The latest victim was a 2,000-barrel oil tanker that caught on fire after it was struck by lightning early Wednesday morning.
At around 2:30 a.m. CST a lightning bolt sparked a fire on an oil tank at the Secure Energy Services Full Service Terminal in Kindersley, Sask., about 200 kilometres southwest of Saskatoon.
Brian McGurk with the company said there were two workers on site when the fire started and they activated an emergency response plan which included turning off the fuel supply and exiting the job site.
"These tanks are designed to sustain a lightning strike and in areas like Saskatchewan and North Dakota, you got a lot of flat land. A 2,000-barrel tank is a large steel structure and it attracts the lightning," McGurk said.
The Dodsland fire department was the first on scene at about 3:15 a.m. and they helped police close access to the facility. The Kindersley fire department arrived at around 4 a.m. and they had the fire out by 4:54 a.m.
McGurk said the Kindersley department used thermal imaging equipment to make sure no more internal fires were burning inside the adjacent oil tanks.
"We're still in the process of assessing the damage but damage to the facility was minimal and we're going through the process of isolating the tanks," he said.