Leading into the new year, KSRM will be recapping our top ten stories of 2014: exploring the issues that had the deepest impact on our community.
Around 7:40 am on October 2, Nikiski Fire Department responded to the report of a fire in the living quarters on Hillcorp’s Baker Platform.
At the time of the call the four employees on board were unable to contain the blaze and Nikiski Fire Public Information Officer Bud Sexton said they were evacuated.
Sexton: “Our part this morning was just to make sure that all the personnel on board were evacuated, they were evacuated via helicopter, there were four individuals, after that was accomplished all the response and everything further was turned over to Hillcorp.”
At the time of the fire there was potentially around 20,000 gallons of natural gas on board the platform but there was never any reports of pollution in the water.
Ocean Marine Services was contracted by Hillcorp to battle the blaze and sent in three vessels to attack the fire with seawater.
Cathy Foerster with the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission confirmed the living quarters were a complete loss around 11 am that day and that appeared to be where the fire originated.
There was one producing gas well, but the subsurface safety valve was closed to contain the disaster and the pipeline to the shore was secured.
As of 3:30 pm that evening the Coast Guard confirmed the fire had been mostly extinguished but was being monitored for flare ups and hot spots.
Coast Guard Captain Paul Mehler clarified the type of fire it was.
Capt. Mehler: “This was not a gas fire, this was what we call a Class A fire, so basically on this platform the house part of it where business is done and the quarters are, that’s what burned, not anything to do with the well, this is not a well fire or any release at all from that nature.”
Hillcorp’s Lori Nelson said investigation verified that all storage tanks on board retained their integrity however the future of the platform is unclear.
Nelson: “We’re not making any decisions as far as the Baker Platform is concerned right now, whether or not we’re going to light house or bring production back online for Baker, all of that will be part of the decision process after we recover from this response mode and after we start to clean up efforts.”
