Prud'homme fire: lots of natural gas burned, but still plenty for winter

The fire at Prud'homme, Sask., is eating up natural gas in the storage cavern underneath the blaze — but it won't affect supplies this winter, SaskEnergy says.

There was a major flare-up at the site on Wednesday, but according to Dave Burdeniuk, a spokesman with the Crown utility, the flames are now down to about 30 metres high.

"The flame is down as pressure in the cavern goes down," Burdeniuk said.

We may have lost half the gas in the cavern.- Dave Burdeniuk, SaskEnergy

The fire has been burning since Saturday. A significant portion of the gas in the storage cavern has been burned off, Burdeniuk said. 

"We may have lost half the gas in the cavern, we may be two-thirds," he said.

With winter coming, some people have expressed concerns about the province's supply of the heating gas, but they needn't be worried, he said. 

Even if all the gas in the cavern was used up, it would only represent about 1.5 per cent of all the gas in storage in Saskatchewan, he said.

"We feel we'll be more than able to make up the supply loss," he said.

Extinguishing attempts continue

Meanwhile, efforts to stop the gas fire continue.

After a well head was severely damaged by the fire, efforts are underway to install a new one — something that will be necessary in order to extinguish the fire.

That could happen today or Friday, Burdeniuk said.

No one has been hurt in connection with the fire a Prud'homme, which is about 80 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.

Thirteen people have been evacuated from their homes in the area as a precaution.