A fire at the west end of Bonnyville at Esso fuel pumps is being deemed non-suspicious so far. 

No injuries have been reported as well as Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority crews responded to a fire just before midnight on Monday night into Tuesday morning at the Esso gas station. 

Firefighters worked for three-and-a-half hours to contain the fire, which damaged fuel pumps, and the awning over top of the pumps. 

While the initial report to the BRFA said a garbage can was on fire, Fire Chief Dan Heney says so far they believe that heat tracing on the downspouts of the awning failed, which caused plastic to melt and drip into the garbage, which started the fire. 

That’s why at this point, the fire is not considered to be suspicious. 

“It appears that they had some heat tracing in the downspouts, or either in or around the downspouts, to keep them from freezing off in the wintertime. It looks like that failed,” Heney told Lakeland Connect. 

“Through its failure, it would heat it up to the point that it was getting super hot, so then the casing of the heat trace and then the PVC downspouts would have started to melt. Then you’ve got hot plastic dripping into the garbage can.” 

The gas station was closed at the time of the fire. 

While concerns may have been high due to the proximity of the fire next to fuel pumps, Heney said there are many safety features with these pumps that mitigate some of the risk.

Plus, the fact that the gasoline would have had time to flow back into the tank since the store was closed also helped. 

“There’s actually very little fuel in the pump at any one point in time unless it’s flowing…not to mention the fact that it was after hours. So therefore, not only are the pumps not flowing, but all the electrical has been killed to the pumps. The pumps are shut down,” said Heney. 

“The only way for there to be a massive fire or massive explosion, would be if the underground tanks had been barely full, like if they’d have been 90 per cent empty. Liquid gasoline doesn’t burn. This is where you get into that chemistry of firefighting…Only vapors burn. 

“It would be if those lines were completely empty and there was a way to burn back down the vapors into the tank. And depending on how far they are underground, it may not have made it to the tank, because there wouldn’t be enough oxygen out there.”

Heney said crews would have been ready to deliver firefighting foam if a significant amount of burning fuel been present during the event. BRFA crews, especially Station 5 members, have advanced training in handling fires involving flammable or combustible liquids, said Heney.