GOOD WORKS
Turn it Off, Turn it On Simple, right? Not exactly. Fort McMurray’s natural gas and electrical utilities suffered major blows in the wildfires. Professional Engineers with ATCO were at the centre of efforts to protect and restore these essential services in the community, repeatedly putting their critical thinking skills to the test
pressure gas is reduced so it can be dis- tributed into homes. Later that day, the fire flared up again. Even those working in the regional emer- gency operations centre were forced to flee the city. The situation on the ground was dynamic, and even that’s an understatement. “For the first three days, we were simply responding to the ever-changing and active fire. As the fire moved outside of town, we had to respond to isolate ad- ditional natural gas infrastructure in com- munities south of Fort McMurray,” says Mr. Germaine. Smaller communities like Anzac, Fort McMurray First Nation, and Gregoire Lake Estates were also evacuated. Mr. Germaine stayed in close commu- nication with Mr. Carter in Edmonton, who was responsible for coordinating overall recovery efforts for gas distribution and transmission, and Mike Shaw, P.Eng., the Calgary Region Operations Vice President. Mr. Shaw was the person responsible for sending in the right resources — people and equipment — to support ATCO’s natural gas recovery efforts. By Day 4, the situation had stabilized enough to send in a small team of about 40 employees to start assessing damage to the gas distribution system and how to fix it. All stations across the city had to be checked. Inspections and integrity digs were con- ducted to make sure that plastic under- ground pipes were still safe to use. To be
As the wildfire advanced towards Fort McMurray, officials with ATCO closely monitored its progress. The company is responsible for two essential services in the community: natural gas and electricity distribution. Some officials, like Nathan Carter, P.Eng., had helped with recovery efforts after the Slave Lake wildfire in 2011. They remembered how quickly the flames had spread into the town, destroying a third of the community. “Given the commodity that we move, fire is always of particular interest to us. Our spidey-senses were tingling,” says Mr. Carter, Vice President of ATCO Gas Ed- monton Region Operations. “We’ve run into wildfires before — they’ve just never hit up against a major industrial city before.” Still, no one could have predicted what was to come. One of the largest evacuations in Canadian history was about to unfold and ATCO employees — including dozens of Professional Engineers — were soon at the centre of the response and recovery efforts. ALL FIRED UP On May 3 — the day Fort McMurray was fully evacuated — many of ATCO’s senior leaders were gathered in Edmonton for an annual general meeting. The Fort McMurray situation soon landed on their agenda. As the crisis escalated, ATCO’s emergency response plan was activated. Non-essential employees in Fort McMurray were asked to evacuate the city with their families. And with parts of the community going up in flames, the company decided to shut off the natural gas supply to all 20,000 customers in the region as a precaution. But shutting off natural gas to an entire city isn’t as easy as flipping a switch. It required a coordinated response with Suncor Energy, which owns the high-pres-
sure pipeline that carries natural gas into the community. “Suncor was able to remotely close one valve north of town, at Mile 17,” explains Mr. Carter. Another remote valve, tucked in the forest south of the city at Mile 27, had to be shut off on site. “They actually had to fly somebody in by helicopter to shut the valve and then pluck the person out afterwards,” he says. A small contingent of ATCO lead- ers flew into Fort McMurray that night to provide support at provincial and regional emergency operation centres. One of them was Ryan Germaine, P.Eng., ATCO Gas Senior Director of District Operations, whose coverage area includes Fort McMurray. He spent most of the night getting up to speed on what was happen- ing. He managed to grab a quick nap at the ATCO office, sleeping on a concrete floor. “I crawled inside some guy’s coveralls as my blanket,” he recalls with a laugh. He didn’t know it yet, but Fort McMurray would be his home for the next three weeks. ‘APOCALYPTIC’ Around 6 a.m. the next morning, Mr. Germaine and other ATCO employees headed out to tour the city, trying to get a handle on the steps required to restore the natural gas network. It was cool and calm outside. The Beast was resting. “It was somewhat apocalyptic with sunlight barely filtering through the smoke. No one was around — vehicles were aban- doned, scattered on the roads and ditches,” he says. Travelling into the worst-hit neigh- bourhoods, the ATCO contingent discov- ered that a major gate station for the city was destroyed and another was damaged. It is at gate stations that the flow of high
QUICK FACT The intense heat of some Fort McMurray house fires caused brass fittings inside gas meter valves to melt. The melting point of brass is 900 to 940 C.
WINTER 2016 PEG | 51
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