Crews from the Berthoud Fire Protection District, Loveland Fire Rescue Authority and Front Range Fire Rescue spent several hours putting out a fire at an oil operation just south of Loveland Monday morning.
Operations chief Rob Stumpf of the BFPD said a call came in around 10:01 a.m. about several oil separators on fire at an Extraction Oil & Gas site on County Road 7 south of Colo. 60.
Stumpf said a crew from BFPD arrived on scene first and confirmed that three oil separators were on fire; LFRA and FRFR were called in to help and water lines were set along the site. Separators are used to separate the oil, gas and water extracted from wells.
Stumpf said a member of Extraction Oil & Gas advised early on that, because of the high-pressure nature of the area involved, it would be best to not attack the fire.
“We have been in a defensive posture for over an hour now,” he said at around 11 a.m. Monday. “We are essentially trying to let it burn itself out and keeping the equipment cool with hose lines.”
Crews continued in a defensive position until they received a supply of fire suppressant foam, which they used to knock down the fire.
“The foam creates a blanket of suppressing vapor so (the fire) can’t burn,” Stumpf said. “Once we had the foam in place we were using that in our hose lines.”
He added the fire was put out around noon and crews were able to leave the scene around 1 p.m.
The cause of the fire is still unknown. Stumpf said any investigation into what caused the fire will be done by the company and not the BFPD.
