VALLEY CITY - A pipeline fire in Barnes County continued to burn Thursday, while crews began making repairs and determining why the steel pipe failed.

The fire that began shortly after 5 a.m. Wednesday about seven miles northwest of Valley City sent flames as high as 100 feet in the air. No one was injured in the blaze, which did not threaten any structures.

Gregg Schweitzer, an area supervisor in Jamestown for Dome Pipeline Corp., said Thursday that flames were small and only on one end of the pipe section that failed. Propane gas in the pipeline had been shut off Wednesday so the fire could burn itself out.

"We're now beginning the repair process," he said.

The section of pipe that failed was being removed and new pipe installed, he said.

"We've got metallurgists here that will guide us on how to preserve (the failed pipe) so we don't mess it up, so to speak," Schweitzer said. "We'll be sending it down to a lab in Houston for analysis. That could take some time."

Installing new pipe should take only a couple of days, he said.

The pipeline is buried about five feet underground. It was installed in the late 1970s and is used to carry propane and petroleum products from the Canadian province of Alberta to markets in the Chicago area, a distance of about 1,800 miles.

Schweitzer said the fire was not causing any supply problems.

"We have notified all of our customers and shippers," he said. "Storage at terminals is adequate at this time."