A fire at an oilfield battery near Twp. 400, east of Woody Nook Road, caused thick plumes of black smoke that could be seen in the Blackfalds area late Sunday afternoon.

According to Lacombe fire chief Ed van Delden, the site is where crude oil would be received, then separated into oil, water and various gases like methane, propane or ethane.

“When we arrived, we found a treater, which is really a crude separation unit, it was on fire,” said van Delden.

“Typical hydrocarbon fire, lots of black smoke.”

Photo courtesy Emily Rennie.

The fire chief said nobody was hurt and that crews from Bentley, Blackfalds, as well as oilfield firefighters, allowed the blaze to burn itself out.

“It wasn’t spreading. We thought it would be better to just let it burn rather than extinguishing it and having oil leak on the ground,” he said.

“Operators had done a good job at isolating the fuel. All the oil that was coming into the battery, they had already shut that down; had shut the natural gas off to the burner.”

van Delden said the cause of the fire will be investigated.