Gas metering station incident sparks grass fire west of Edmonton

A grass fireinvolving a gas metering station prompted the closure of a major highway west of Edmonton Monday.

The RCMPinformedthe Alberta Energy Regulator of anincident involving a natural gas pipeline operated by AtcoGas and Pipelines Ltd., about 15 kilometres west of Edson, Alta.,at about 2:30 p.m., an AER spokesperson said.

Yellowhead County said thefireinvolved a gas metering station and there has been no direct damage reported with nearby pipelines, the county said.

The county saidin a news release that its firefighters responded to a call for assistance for a reported structural fire on Monday near Range Road 185 and Highway 16.

Alberta Wildfire saysfirefightersresponded to a small grass fire less than a hectare in size that wasn't threatening any communities.

RCMP said travel in both directions of Highway 16 was closed due to the grass fire, but said in an update later Monday afternoon that eastbound lanes had reopened.

An RCMP news release initially reported that the fire was caused by a pipeline explosion.

Energy infrastructure in the area

The county said in its release that it isworking with FortisAlberta, TransMountain Pipeline, Atco Gas, AltaLink, Alberta Forestry and the RCMP.

County spokespersonStefan Felsing said there isa lot of energy infrastructure in the area and that he didn't know whose metering station was involved in the fire.

In April, a natural gas line rupture sparked a wildfire also in Yellowhead Country, involving TC Energy's Nova Gas Transmission Line in a remote location 40 kilometres northwest of Edson, Alta.

Edson is about 200 kilometres west of Edmonton and about160 kmnortheast of the B.C.-Alberta border.

The Canadian Energy Regulator responded to that incident, which is still under investigation.

Regarding Monday's incident, the CER said "Trans Mountain has informed us that a fire involving a non CER-regulated, third-party asset occurred on their property, not a pipeline explosion."