MANDAN, N.D. (AP) -- Firefighters from around the state sharpened their skills for fighting oil field fires at the Tesoro refinery here.
Vicky Steiner, director of the North Dakota Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties, said fire departments have been requesting more training for oil and gas fires.
Those fires typically are started by lightning strikes or grass fires, and the fuel makes the fire hotter and more hazardous, Steiner said.
``They need to understand the inherent danger of an energy fire,'' she said.
More than 30 firefighters worked in teams to extinguish controlled fires fueled by oil and gas at the refinery.
John Nixon, Tesoro's fire chief, said the instruction also was aimed at improving firefighters' familiarity with recovering oil from the environment.
Chris Palczewski, Bowman County's assistant rural chief, said his department has responded to a few oil fires in the past few years. They generally handle oil-field fires with extra caution and are reluctant to put anyone in danger, he said.
``We don't want to be in too deep because oil isn't as valuable as life,'' he said. The training is important because ``if life is in danger, we can handle an incident without putting ourselves at risk.''
The session was funded by a grant from the North Dakota Oil and Gas Research Council and sponsored by the North Dakota Association of Oil and Gas-Producing Counties and the North Dakota Firefighters Association.
Dickinson assistant fire chief Bob Sivak said the instruction will help firefighters from across North Dakota's oil country deal with any situation.
``They all need to be ready,'' he said of the various departments at the training. ``It doesn't fall to just one department.''
