Ste-Geneviève propane fire injures three

A fire at a Ste-Geneviève propane distribution centre injured three people last week.

Tache Deputy Fire Chief Jason Kroeker said they received a call at 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 29 for a fire and explosion with injuries at Prairie Propane Ltd., located 28 kilometres north of Steinbach, off Provincial Road 501.

When he arrived on the scene, he found a garage-like structure engulfed in flames, with roughly 100 propane tanks inside. STARS air ambulance was called and airlifted one of the victims to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. Another person was transported by ground ambulance to Winnipeg, and the other was treated on the scene.

“It was a very complex and fast-paced incident,” he said. “Right off the bat, we were working on setting up a landing zone for STARS while initiating our fire attack and trying to isolate the risk of the explosions of the propane tanks.”

Kroeker said firefighters also discovered approximately 250 propane tanks near the burning structure, another 2,000 tanks in a nearby building and three large holding tanks.

The biggest risk the firefighters faced was a propane BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion), which is when the pressure inside the tank grows faster than it can release gas through a valve, he said.

Fire crews focused on spraying water on both the engulfed structure and the cooling the surrounding propane tanks to reduce the risk of explosion, Kroeker said.

Roughly 45 firefighters were at the scene, with crews called in from Ste Anne and Giroux.

Crews got the fire under control in one hour, and remained on the property for five additional hours, Kroeker said. No firefighters were injured while battling the blaze, he added.

John-Paul Paille, owner of Prairie Propane Ltd., downplayed the fire’s scale and said it wasn’t an explosion.

He said a leaking tank tipped over, hit a piece of metal and created a spark. The spark caused a small flash with the leaking gas, igniting a cardboard box and spreading to the shop walls, Paille said.

“It was basically a glorified garage fire,” he said, noting staff tried to put it out with a fire extinguisher, but it grew too quickly.

Paille said the injuries were on the same level as a “really bad sunburn” on peoples’ faces and arms. He was among those injured and said everyone was released from hospital the same day.

The propane tanks outside the burning structure were either plugged or empty, reducing the risk of explosion, he said.

Paille has run his business for 50 years and said he hasn’t seen an incident like this before. He said Workplace Health and Safety said staff can resume work, following an inspection.

“I can’t think of anything else we could’ve done. If you tried a thousand times, you probably couldn’t recreate the incident of the tank falling correctly to get the spark,” he said.

A provincial spokesperson told The Carillon Workplace Health and Safety issued two stop work orders and an improvement order on propane service and maintenance, along with forklift use. The Office of the Fire Commissioner and Workplace Heath and Safety officials are still investigating, they said.