Roads around the Superior Propane site in south-end Barrie remain closed as several agencies work to make the area safe and investigate Friday afternoon’s spectacular fire and explosions.
Those involved in local industries and businesses in the official evacuation zone have been given access to the area and were permitted to resume operations, says deputy fire chief Carrie Clark.
“We’re just working to keep the site contained while we have the roads blocked with fire hoses for suppression,” she told BarrieToday. “We’re mitigating the risk by removing the energy from the site and the energy from the propane.
“Our goal is to shrink the perimeter to just the Superior site so everyone else can get back to business," Clark added.
Lockhart Road and Bayview Drive were expected to remain closed today from Saunders Road to Rawson Road.
In addition to making the area safe, crews have been working through the long weekend to first document the scene and then begin the clean-up of the debris field caused by the fire.
Superior Propane’s emergency response team, along with Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) representatives, were removing the propane from the large tanks and undamaged tanks from the site.
A crew from the Emergency Response Assistance Canada, a not-for-profit emergency preparedness and response organization supported by the propane industry, was also on hand working with Superior Propane to mitigate the risk.
“We’re just in the process of flaring the residual vapour from the large tanks today,” which involves burning it off, Clark said in a phone interview from the scene. “After that happens, it will be down to a TSSA investigation from that point on.”
Fire trucks were on scene Tuesday to provide suppression safety for the flaring.
The Office of the Fire Marshal (OFM) was also completing its on-site work on Tuesday after identifying on the weekend the urgent area of origin, cause and circumstance.
Emergency crews responded to the scene around 1:45 p.m., Friday (July 30). Plumes of thick black smoke could be seen from a distance. One witness from a nearby business also described the flames as being at least 15 to 20 feet in the air.
Fire officials have said their main concern was the two large 30,000-gallon propane tanks at the facility, which were blackened and had the paint peeled off due to the nearby heat. Firefighters were able to bring the blaze quickly under control and sprayed the larger tanks with water from a distance to keep them cool.
The fire and resulting explosions from smaller tanks were also captured on video.
Officials have also said the two employees working on site properly followed their response plan and got out of the potentially dangerous situation quickly and called 911, ensuring there were no injuries.
As a precaution, emergency personnel evacuated numerous businesses in a one-kilometre radius around the fire scene to create a safety zone.
