Shed fire near Kinder Morgan oil-tank farm contained

A fire just a few hundred metres from the Kinder Morgan fuel tank facility in Metro Vancouver raged for a few hours before it was contained by about three dozen firefighters.

Burnaby Fire Department Deputy Chief Dave Samson said they were called about 8 p.m. Saturday to the blaze burning in a large equipment-storage facility used by a demolition business.

“Our crews found a large storage facility with heavy fire from all sides and they declared the mode defensive, meaning no interior operations were going to take place.”

Samson said the fire was about 230 metres from the closest fuel tank, although the fire didn’t spread to nearby green space or other homes.

The building is on a property bordering a narrow greenbelt at the edge of the Kinder Morgan facility where 13 huge tanks hold crude oil and refined products awaiting distribution. Kinder Morgan said on its website that the 13 tanks can hold up to 1.6-million barrels of fuel.

Samson said they had some water-supply issues in fighting the blaze. He said they notified Kinder Morgan’s security as a precaution, but there were “no concerns of any fire spread outside the building envelope.”

No one was hurt and the cause of the fire isn’t known.

A woman living directly across the street from the fire described the blaze as “pretty spectacular,” saying sparks from the fire were shooting above the tall trees on the property.