Thirty-three fire firefighters from around the state spent their Saturday becoming better prepared to fight oil field fires.

The training event was held at Tesoro Refinery in Mandan and funded by a grant from the North Dakota Oil and Gas Research Council. Co-sponsored by the North Dakota Association of Oil and Gas-Producing Counties and the North Dakota Firefighters Association, teams worked together to extinguish flames of controlled fires fueled by oil and gas.

Vicky Steiner, executive director for the North Dakota Association of Oil and Gas-Producing Counties, said firefighters have been requesting more training for oil and gas fires, and with new technology available it's good to keep them up-to-date. Fuel fires generally result from lightning striking a well or a grass fire encroaching on an oil field. The fuel makes the fire hotter, and more hazardous, Steiner said.

"They need to understand the inherent danger of an energy fire," she said.

John Nixon, Tesoro's fire chief, trained the students. He said fuel fires are often fought with biodegradable foam but most of the fires Saturday were extinguished using water and dry chemicals. He said the preparation will make fire departments that cover oil fields better skilled in not just how to fight the oil fires, but how to recover oil from the environment.

Bob Sivak is the assistant fire chief from Dickinson and a trustee with the North Dakota Firefighters Association. With wells and tanks within the city's limits, the training will help give firefighters the tools to determine how to 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."

Bowman County is among the North Dakota counties with the most oil field activity right now. Chris Palczewski, assistant rural chief of the volunteer department there, said his department has responded to a couple fires over the last few years, but generally handles incidents reluctantly, with extra caution.

"We don't want to be in too deep because oil isn't as valuable as life," he said. Six firefighters from Bowman were at the training "to get the opportunity that if life is in danger, we can handle an incident without putting ourselves at risk."

(Reach reporter Angie Buckley at 250-8255 or angiebuckley@ndonline.com.)