CALGARY, ALBERTA–(Marketwired – June 4, 2016) – More than 500 ATCO employees are in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo working hard to restore electricity and natural gas service to residents, provide lodging to first responders and serve food to returning residents and those helping to rebuild the community. To help ensure a safe re-entry process as residents return back, please be aware of the following:

• Natural Gas Home Visits: The natural gas distribution system in Fort McMurray is owned, operated and maintained by ATCO. Residents should be aware that there are reports of individuals charging residents to relight their appliances. Our skilled employees are familiar with the system and are the most appropriate representatives to assist residents with the safe restoration of natural gas to their homes. This is part of ATCO’s service offering and there is no charge to residents for this service. There are approximately 150 ATCO service representatives conducting natural gas safety inspections and relighting appliances.

• Click Before You Dig: As returning residents start household projects, whether it’s landscaping or fixing decks or fences, they are reminded to Click Before You Dig. There could be natural gas lines or other utilities below. Damaging those lines could have serious consequences. Heavily damaged areas currently without natural gas have infrastructure that is intact and will be used again. Visit AlbertaOneCall.com to request utility line locates.

Complete details on natural gas and electrical service are available at ATCOresponds.com

ATCO representatives are also available at the Community Information Centres in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and extended call centre hours have been implemented to accommodate questions from area residents.

With nearly 8,000 employees and assets of approximately $19 billion, ATCO is a diversified global corporation delivering service excellence and innovative business solutions in Structures & Logistics (workforce housing, innovative modular facilities, construction, site support services, and logistics and operations management); Electricity (power generation, distributed generation, and electricity distribution, transmission and infrastructure development); Pipelines & Liquids (natural gas transmission, distribution and infrastructure development, energy storage, and industrial water solutions); and Retail Energy (electricity and natural gas retail sales). More information can be found at www.ATCO.com.

Kelly Bowman
Senior Advisor, Communications
780-221-1374