Explosion, fire destroy building

POINT MACKENZIE — A building at the Fairbanks Natural Gas facility on Ayshire Road exploded early this morning, destroying the building but injuring no one.

According to Mat-Su Borough Director of Emergency Services Dennis Brodigan, a worker at the plant at mile 2.5 Ayshire Road, near the corner of Burma and Point MacKenzie Roads, called at 7:16 a.m.

“He stated that there was a massive explosion,” Brodigan said. “He stated that he was the only one there, there were no injuries, however the building was on fire.”

According to its website, which lists contact information for a Wasilla plant, Fairbanks Natural Gas converts natural gas into liquid for transportation to Fairbanks.

Brodigan said the building that burned was identified as a maintenance building and not the main production plant.

“The Fairbanks Natural Gas employees did secure the gas in and out of that facility very early on,” Brodigan said. “None of the existing fire is being fed by any kind of pipeline gas.”

Which, he said, doesn't mean there isn't gas involved, just that it's not coming from a pipe. There might be tanks in the burning building.

“There was a tanker truck inside that building full of gas,” Brodigan said. “It vented for the most part but did have a small explosion later on.”

He said the decision was made, after fire crews made sure the fire wouldn't spread, to just let the building burn. There wasn't much else they could do since it was fully involved when firefighters arrived.

“It would have taken a lot of water, a lot of time to extinguish it,” he said. “There's nothing more that we can do. The one and only resident out in that area self-evacuated very early on. We have not had to evacuate anyone else.”

Because the area sits outside the area the borough covers for fire protection, the scene will be turned over to the state fire marshal.