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POINT MACKENZIE, Alaska-Crews are working to clean up the damage from three explosions at a Point MacKenzie natural gas plant this morning.
An employee of Fairbanks Natural Gas, the company that owns the plant, reported the first explosion at 7:16 a.m., and Deputy Fire Chief Mike Keenan reported a second explosion as he was enroute to the scene before 8 a.m.
The fire leveled one building. No injures were reported, and only one person was working at the time of the explosion. A production building was close enough to the blaze that firefighters protected it by dousing the nearby flames with water. Firefighters also protected tanks that were near flames. The gas flow was turned off.
Firefighters from the Central Mat-Su Fire Department responded, at the peak of the fire two engines, three tankers, a hazardous materials team, and a rescue team were on scene.
The gas company is at mile 2.5 Ayrshire Road in the rural Point MacKenzie area.
After 9 a.m. firefighters pulled back from the scene a quarter of a mile away when they witnessed a third explosion, possibly from a semi-truck or oil barrel that had been inside the burning building. The truck had been venting as the building burned and likely had vented all its gas.
"It probably exploded because of its diesel fuel," Brodigan said.
As of 10 a.m. the fire was burning the debris of the building, with temperatures of 7 degrees are keeping the fire in check.
Officials from Fairbanks Natural
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