A quick-acting employee prevented a fire at Burchett Fuels from getting out of hand and causing more damage.
Shortly after 10 a.m. on June 19, firefighters were called to a structure fire at Burchett Fuels on Highway 44 just south of the Dapp Corner Store.
The fire was inside the building that served as an office and lubrication storage area.
Westlock County fire chief John Biro said the call came in from an employee inside the building at the time.
“They were working in the building at the time and could smell some smoke and went to investigate,” he said. “They found smoke and fire in the storage area.”
The employee got out of the building and immediately called 911.
“When I arrived there was visible fire inside the building as well as smoke throughout,” Biro said.
Fifteen firefighters from Westlock Rural, Jarvie and Fawcett fire departments attended the scene, he said, as well as EMS and the county peace officer.
Firefighters used roughly 1,500 litres of water to extinguish the fire. They remained on scene for approximately two-and-a-half hours and were back in service in about three hours.
Thanks to the quick actions of the employee, Biro said the damage caused by the fire was limited.
“She was on site and at the first sign of trouble she called 911, which definitely helped the response time and kept the damage minimal,” he said.
The fire was contained to the storage area, and the rest of the building only suffered limited smoke and heat damage.
No one was injured in the blaze.
The exact cause of the fire remains under investigation, but Biro said the working theory is an electrical problem.
Firefighters racing to the scene were thinking they were going to the Dapp Corner Store, as the initial fire call said it was the store that was ablaze.
“Thank goodness it wasn’t,” Biro said.
Last week’s fire at Burchett Fuels is the second conflagration to strike the business recently.
On April 25, a storage shed containing pails and drums full of motor oil, transmission fluid and hydraulic grease caught fire, and took firefighters several hours and close to 45,400 litres of water to extinguish.
Much of that water was used to limit the potential damage to the surrounding land, Biro said at the time.
Fighting the April fire brought with it extra challenges considering the nature of the blaze and what was burning.
Since petroleum products were involved, it was necessary to control runoff to avoid contaminating the surrounding environment. This included building a dyke to contain the runoff and using a vacuum truck to clean up the accumulated fluids.
