Explosion at Toronto propane factory

[CanadianChris 0]

TORONTO -- Thousands of residents spent the day ousted from their homes after a propane storage facility in northwest Toronto erupted in a series of massive explosions that were felt as far as seven kilometres away.

 

Authorities had urged residents and business owners within a 1.6-kilometre radius around Sunrise Propane to evacuate the area until officials could declare it safe from the prospect of further explosions. City officials announced last night that the non-mandatory order was being lifted after 16 hours.

 

The blasts and subsequent six-alarm blaze also caused the closure of a long stretch of Highway 401, throwing much of the city into traffic gridlock. The highway was reopened last night, staving off concerns about widespread problems when Canada's largest city opens for business this morning.

 

Pat Burke, Ontario Fire Marshall, said his office was waiting for the scene to stabilize before the investigation into the cause of the explosion and subsequent fire could be started in earnest.

 

"It's too early to say what caused it," he said at an evening news conference. "We have to get in there, and we won't do that until it's entirely stabilized."

 

A 25-year veteran Toronto firefighter died after fighting the blazes, and one employee of Sunrise Propane was still unaccounted for last night.

 

Eighteen other people were treated for minor injuries, officials said.

 

Ray Maco said the blasts terrified him and his young children.

 

"Fear. It was the greatest fear I've every had in my life. I thought it was a terrorist in Canada," he said from a makeshift shelter at York University.

 

"[but] when I saw the fireball I knew what it was."

 

Joanne Crockett was asleep in her home directly across from the propane facility, when the first explosion shook the walls and woke up her two large Rottweilers.

 

"The next thing I know, there was another blast," she said outside the evacuation centre. Running outside, she said her neighbours were all awake and watching the series of explosions.

 

"A lot of people were standing there, watching like they were fireworks. I was like, ‘Get out of here people.'"

 

Ms. Crockett grabbed her dogs and fled. She said police were screaming at people to leave and were clearly concerned that the series of blasts were not done.

 

"You could smell it. There's no doubt about it, it was propane burning," she said.

 

Division Commander Bob O'Hallarn of Toronto Fire Services said damage to homes and businesses in the area was still being assessed.

 

"I saw homes with very heavy damage, but I would not classify it as completely destroyed. I've seen [homes] from explosions before where it's nothing but a pile of rubble. I didn't see any of that here," he said.

 

"There's five homes that I saw that have damage, but there's more than that. I saw five, but it was dark when I was down there and I didn't see the entire area."

 

Well into Sunday, firefighters were still working to contain a number of "spot fires" at the facility.

 

"It was a very difficult fire to fight because of the heat and the amount of fire was spread over a very large area," Commander O'Hallarn told a news conference a few hours after the explosions.

 

"When the initial explosion went off, or one of the explosions went off, it obviously spread fire all over the general area," he said.

 

He said police have spoken to a driver who was in the facility early Sunday morning.

 

"He was filling up his truck and he saw some either smoke or some type of gas and went to report that and left the area. As he was leaving the area there was an explosion."

 

A section of Highway 401 south of the explosion was closed throughout the day and aircraft were not allowed to fly near the area.

 

"Highway 401 [was] closed across the top of the city. There [was] 16 kilometres of 401 closed, from Highway 400 over to Highway 404 and that's really the main part of Toronto. It's the busiest part of the 401 which is the busiest highway in North America," said Ontario Provincial Police spokesman Sergeant Cam Woolley Sunday afternoon. "Traffic is being rerouted, but the alternate routes are quite busy. But it's going quite well considering the size of the closure."

 

Sgt. Woolley said it was is the biggest closure of the 401 in the highway's history.

 

Toronto Mayor David Miller told a teleconference Sunday afternoon that the road closure was a necessary precaution.

 

"The basic safety issue is you need to clear 1.6 kilometres around the site," in order to ensure no one is at risk of harm from a further explosion, he said.

 

The busy Yorkdale Shopping Centre was also evacuated Sunday afternoon after being open to shoppers for several hours, but Mr. Miller said that decision was not a city matter. However, reports last night said police -- not mall adminstration -- determine to close the shopping centre.

 

A still undetermined number of explosions erupted from the Sunrise Propane facility in North York at about 4 a.m.

 

Police said the company stores and distributes a number of highly flammable welding supplies and such gases as acetylene, argon, nitrogen, propane and oxygen which police say is "highly explosive."

 

He said he has "no idea" what's in the tankers, but said "it's probably propane, because it's a propane facility. But who knows? It could be methane, it could be anything."

 

Huge billows of dark smoke could be seen from the area of the blast. Several images of the explosions, and videos of the fireballs going off were posted online soon after they occurred.

 

Incredibly, there was only one dead (and apparently of natural causes) and one missing.

 

A picture of the aftermath:

 

 

And a video of the explosion...honestly, I looked at this and thought it was in Afghanistan or Georgia or some such place:

 

[dubq 0]

Daaaamn, I hadn't see that video yet. Fucking spectacular (and not in a good way) explosion. Someone (read: whoever greenlit the building of a propane facility in a residental neighborhood) is going to get raked over the coals for this one.

 

Citynews is saying there's been some sporadic looting going on as well. Fucking savages.

[At Home 0]

And people say canadians don't pollute...

[EricMM 0]

NIMBY plz...............

[Lord of The Curry 0]

It woke up my two roommates but not me likely because I was in a serious drunken slumber due to UFC on Saturday night. I'm just outside of the "evacuation" area, it was really fucked up yesterday because our apartment overlooks a major road and subway tracks and there were no cars and minimal subway routes active which was interspersed with helicopter sounds.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Impressive. Industrial disasters are a hobby of mine. This ain't got shit on PEPCON.

 

Observe:

 

 

"Oooh that's gonna be loud!"

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's still the world's largest man-made non-nuclear explosion.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

Wasn't the Halifax one the largest? I know it was at one point.

[The Metal Maniac 0]

The Halifax Explosion was the largest conventional explosion (biggest man-made explosion period until 1945) for a very long time, but I *think* something else has topped it since. I cannot think of what, exactly, but I do seem to recall reading that it was no longer the largest man-made conventional explosion.

 

That said, as a Halifax citizen, I'm prolly biased. Hell, I've been on tour "buses" (damned Harbour Hopper) where they claimed that the Halifax Explosion was *still* the largest man-made explosion ever.

 

Yeah, they didn't add the "non-nuclear" qualifier.

 

Browsing around, Wiki has a list claiming that the Halifax Explosion was a magnitude of like, 2.9 kilotons, behind about 5 other explosions, but I seriously wonder if any of those ones killed anywhere near as many people. Halifax got fucking LEVELED.

[EricMM 0]

Damn Canada...

 

stop blowing up...

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Man, after watching public officials fuck this up on a grand scale I'm not exactly confident that if something on a 9/11/Katrina scale ever happened here we'd be safe. Case in point: daycare center is open for 2 days and occupied by children and staff before being shut down today under suspicion of asbestos. I would not want to be David Miller right now.

[Red Baron 0]

Man, after watching public officials fuck this up on a grand scale I'm not exactly confident that if something on a 9/11/Katrina scale ever happened here we'd be safe. Case in point: daycare center is open for 2 days and occupied by children and staff before being shut down today under suspicion of asbestos. I would not want to be David Miller right now.

 

Bring in the army for snow...

 

Wait, that was Mel Lasmen

[Boxer 0]

Nice to see one of your politicians tell someone to "SHUT UP".

[Lord of The Curry 0]

That video was fucking hilarious and the retards calling for her resignation are just that.

[dubq 0]

Nice to see one of your politicians tell someone to "SHUT UP".

 

I would've done the same. That fucking guy wouldn't shut up and let her respond.