Blast aftermath
The work of Toronto Fire responders does not end when the fire is put out. For some of them, it is just beginning.

After a massive fire, the affected area quickly becomes a safety hazard. But workers from various agencies need to go into the site for post-incident investigations and documentation. This called for more coordination with external agencies, Kostiuk says, including the Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Labour, the TSSA and the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office.

“We had site meetings every morning to coordinate the day’s activities, draw up an action plan for the day, (discuss) some of the safety concerns. Then we coordinated between the fire marshal, ourselves and the police as to how we’re going to proceed with the day’s activities,” Kostiuk explains.

Toronto Fire’s hazardous materials (hazmat) response team was called to the site to provide health and safety support for agency workers going in and out of the blast zone. Entering the hot zone requires full personal protective gear to ensure the health and safety of the agency workers.

Air monitoring equipments were set up to check for propane presence in the air. Emergency medical units were also on-site to provide medical support. Workers going inside the blast zone were required to wear hazmat suits, protective gloves and footwear, as well as self-contained breathing apparatus for protection. Agency workers were always accompanied by members of the hazmat team as they walk through the site.

Peter White, a Toronto firefighter and an acting captain on the hazardous materials and response team, says setting up a restrictive entry and exit zone was vital in ensuring the investigators and other authorized personnel are working safely within the site.

“We dress them at a specific level, we allow them in for specific intervals, and then as they are coming out we decontaminate them and we properly remove the stuff that they have been wearing,” White says.

Just before agency workers go into the blast site, the ground where investigators will be walking through is hosed down using one of Toronto Fire’s aerial ladder trucks. Wetting the ground prevents any hazardous substances from rising into the air, says White.
Workers’ vital signs are checked by EMS on site, before and after walking through the blast zone, to monitor the workers’ medical condition.

“This is hot work. You’re in a self-contained breathing apparatus or full-face air-purifying respirators. So in summer conditions, you could have teams in there for 45 minutes doing this work, you have to always be concerned about the physiology and the psychological impact of that too,” White explains.

Lessons learned
In disaster situations, organizations are judged by the way they handle an emergency, says Saunders of the Canadian Red Cross. And silence is the worse thing they can resort to.

“People need information in order to cope with the situation,” says Saunders. “In the absence of information, speculation arises.”

To date, Sunrise Propane has only issued one statement about the blast expressing “profound regret for the tragic loss of life which occurred and for the events and turmoil that has resulted from that day.”

The same statement says the company is cooperating fully with investigators and will refrain from any further public comments “out of an abundance of caution and a desire for the investigatory process to unfold free of speculation and misinformation.”
Saunders says industries involved in a disaster situation like the propane blast should be prepared to communicate with the affected community. This is particularly true for those industries located in close proximity to residential areas, as was the case with Sunrise Propane.

“One of the things that will come out of this is that people are going to be asking tougher questions of industries that are located in residential neighbourhoods. So industries are going to have to be prepared to answer questions about what are the risks,” Saunders says.

(Next: Dim future for Sunrise)