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under control in southern Alta




BROOKS, Alta. (CP) - An oil well that was the scene of a deadly blast was brought under control Wednesday, allowing residents from about a dozen evacuated houses to return home.

"The fire has been extinguished and the flow from the well has been stopped, so essentially the situation is over," said Darin Barter of Alberta's Energy and Utilities Board. Four men were working on the well when it exploded Tuesday afternoon.

Warren Fick, 23, of Lloydminster, Alta., was airlifted to hospital but died of his injuries.

Two other workers were treated and released, and one man was still in hospital Wednesday in stable condition. All the men worked for Precision Drilling, a subcontractor to Celtic Exploration Ltd., which owns the well.

Celtic president David Wilson said losses due to the halt in production were not significant and the company's expenses in bringing the well under control are covered by insurance.

"The worst part of this is there was a fatality," he said by telephone from company headquarters in Calgary.

"Our thoughts are out to the family there, and that's the most important thing out of this tragedy, is there was a lost life."

Wilson and Barter both stressed the evacuations, which included about 100 people at Tillebrook Provincial Park, were a precaution and that the public health risk was minimal.

"It was an oil well and not a sour gas well," said Barter. "There was no real risk from sour gas at all because it was such low content - less than one-half of one per cent sour gas content."

Wilson pointed out the company's emergency response plan only requires it to evacuate within a 40-metre radius, but the company decided to expand that to 1.5 kilometres.

"We chose to err on the safe side," he said. "We made the evacuation area quite a bit larger on the first night just because this happened going into the evening. Until we had full assessment of what we had there, we just wanted to make sure public safety was not an issue."

However, the distinctions between the two types of wells was not made by RCMP, who said there were worries about public safety.

"The real concern is . . . when they cap the thing, they put the fire out and when the fire is out, the gas still emits," Cpl. Gary Zielke told the Medicine Hat News.

He said because the poisonous gas is heavier than air, anyone in the vicinity would be in danger if the fire went out and the well was not under control.

Barter said Zielke was wrong in his statements, adding a lot of people in the community did not appear to understand it was not a sour gas well.

"We're going to follow up with them," he said of the RCMP. "There's a role for us to help different organizations understand this."

The EUB will investigate to determine the cause of the blast as well as how the emergency management response was handled.

Some residents had complained Tuesday of poor communication. One man said he rushed home after work to find his wife and children outside, unaware their neighbours had been evacuated.

Occupational Health and Safety was on site and has launched an investigation into the blast.

"Our role is to find out what happened and prevent it from happening again," said spokesman Chris Chodan.

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This happened just a few days ago.

Egon

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