ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An explosion and fire leveled a maintenance building this morning adjacent to a natural gas plant north of Anchorage.
Matanuska-Susitna Borough officials said no one was injured in the blast at a Fairbanks Natural Gas-operated facility at Point MacKenzie. The cause of the explosion was not immediately known.
There was only one person at the plant when the explosion occurred shortly before 8 a.m., said Dennis Brodigan, the borough’s emergency services director. The worker was in another plant building and called 911, he said.
When emergency personnel arrived, they found a 60- by 30-foot building “on fire and totally down on the ground,” Brodigan said.
More than 20 emergency responders and two fire engines, three water tankers, a rescue truck and a hazardous materials team responded to the explosion.
Fairbanks Natural Gas employees shut off the gas to the plant.
Officials decided to let the fire burn itself out.
“We will just let it burn through the day,” Brodigan said.
When crews arrived, they doused nearby tanker cars with water to cool them and kept close watch on several nearby buildings. There was only the one explosion and fire, Brodigan said.
Fairbanks Natural Gas LLC provides natural gas to more than 1,000 customers in Fairbanks, Alaska’s second-largest city. The gas is purchased in the Cook Inlet area and condensed into a liquid. It is then trucked to Fairbanks where it is converted back to natural gas for delivery to customers.
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