Residents may notice a large flame present on the north side of Swift Current today and tomorrow, as SaskEnergy conducts a controlled natural gas flare.
The flare will take place at the Swift Current Town Border Station #1, which is located to the north of the intersection at Central Avenue North and Battleford Trail.
Peter L'Heureux, Deputy Fire Chief with the Swift Current Fire Department, provided some insight on what residents can expect.
“It is a SaskEnergy trans gas site, it's a fenced off area, it's protected, and they're going to be doing a flare off,” he explained. “So, from their gas stack, they will be doing a flare off, it's usually about a 10- to 15-foot-tall flame, it's got some noise to it.
“Lots of times when they do these flare offs, people who are intending to do a nice thing and report a fire, because they see it over some buildings or in an area, call and report a fire when in fact it's a scheduled flare off from TransGas and SaskEnergy.
The flare is necessary to perform maintenance work on the natural gas line system in the area and will take place today and tomorrow from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The process includes part of the gas line being isolated from the system and natural gas being removed in a controlled burn.
Flaring is an industry standard practice when natural gas needs to be removed from a line and reduces the carbon footprint of the vented natural gas by 85 per cent.
The area around the flare will be supervised to ensure public safety.
Residential natural gas service in the area will not be affected.
