Saskatoon firefighters respond to fire at Vanscoy potash mine

Multiple fire crews responded to a fire Saturday night at the Nutrien Vanscoy potash mine.

According to Nutrien spokesperson, Will Tigley, the fire began around 10 p.m. in the load out area of the facility.

As of Sunday morning, Tigley said the fire is still burning.

“Right now, we have the fire contained. But it is still under monitoring,” he said.

The view of Vanscoy’s potash mine around 10 a.m. on March 8, 2020. (Harrison Brooks/650 CKOM)

“We are actually working with local first responders and our teams on site to make sure we manage the incident.”

Saskatoon Fire Department was called to the scene following a request for Hazmat support. They joined emergency crews from Pike Lake, Delisle and the R.M. of Montrose.

In a press release, Saskatoon Fire said the blaze was a chemical fire involving three storage tanks.

Former mine worker, Cliff Merkosky, says based on where the fire was they might be in for another lengthy shutdown.

“It’s not a good thing because they have to rebuild that building. They are pretty much done without that load out building,” he said.

“They just had a major shutdown for a few months and now all these people, I’m sure their going to be laid off again and it’s going to hurt the town because we have a lot of people that work there both in Vanscoy and Delisle.”

Mine workers have only been back to work less than two weeks after a 3 month shutdown beginning in November.

When asked about the future of the mine, and if they will operate Monday, Tigley said that isn’t top of mind at this point.

“Right now, we’re just focused on the fire. We (have) to make sure we assess it, once we’ve got it contained, and then we’ll be able to evaluate how we’ll move forward with the business after that,” he said.

“No timeline right now, again, we’re just prioritizing the fire and making sure that we’re managing it to the best of our abilities.”

No one was injured in the fire and no damage estimates are available at this time.