It took a year to plan Wednesday’s emergency simulation exercise held at the Nova Chemicals St. Clair River site in St. Clair Township but all the time spent was worth it, says the township’s fire chief.
It took a year to plan Wednesday’s emergency simulation exercise held at the Nova Chemicals St. Clair River site in St. Clair Township but all the time spent was worth it, says the township’s fire chief.
Advertisement 2
Article content
“It’s no different than a hockey team,” said Chief Richard Boyes. “We practice, we practice (and) when it does have to happen, it should not be a major event.”
The annual simulations are planned by industries and government agencies that are part of the Bluewater Association for Safety, Environment and Sustainability (BASES) organization in the Sarnia area.
Wednesday’s exercise scenario was based on rail cars colliding in the plant’s railyard, leading to a leak of the chemical cyclohexane that ignited. Emergency crews were called out to deal with the fire and keep nearby tank cars cool, Boyes said.
Because there wasn’t a fire hydrant nearby, firefighters set up a relay system carrying water from a pond through about 900 meters of hose, using a relay of four fire trucks.
Advertisement 3
Article content
Foam also was deployed and a grass fire that ignited at the site had to be dealt with, according to the scenario.
Boyes said the exercise went well and he credited the partnership that has been nurtured between local industries and community first responders.
“From what I see, our goals and objectives have been met,” he said as the exercise was winding down.
“This is an annual event that is really focused on our mutual aid preparedness (and) how do we work together to respond to incidents that could happen here,” said Jason Vaillant, general manager of the BASES. “In the event something does happen, we’re ready to go.”
Taking part with Nova Chemicals and St. Clair Township were Lambton OPP, Sarnia Fire, Lambton Emergency Medical Services and Suncor’s fire department. Shell contributed fire hose and Preferred Towing brought in a foam tanker BASES maintains for its members.
Advertisement 4
Article content
St. Clair Township and neighboring Sarnia are home to refineries and chemical plants that make up what’s known as Chemical Valley, where decades ago, municipalities and industries began cooperating and planning together to respond to emergencies.
“It’s absolutely worth the effort,” Boyes said about the regularly-held simulations.
“It’s a very big logistical undertaking” but “the benefits are so good,” including getting to know and work with counterparts in other first response agencies, he said.
“We should not be meeting for the first time in the middle of the night” at an incident, Boyes said.
“This allows us to build the partnership (and) identify shortfalls,” he said.
He praised the township for how well it has equipped its fire department, including two aerial ladder fire trucks purchased with assistance from industry, an all-terrain vehicle with a water tank that can quickly get to grass fires and a drone equipped with a camera which was used Wednesday so officials could monitor the exercise from the township offices in Mooretown.
Advertisement 5
Article content
“The township has committed for a long time to (having) an effective fire department,” Boyes said.
Just recently, township council approved a move to have the municipality begin using the Sarnia-Lambton Alerts system to inform its residents during incidents, on top of warning sirens in place in the community.
The system is already used by nearly 17,000 residents of the Sarnia area to receive notices from industries and municipalities. Boyes said he has been working with council and other township officials for about a year to see the municipality join the system.
“This gives us real-time alerting (and) the ability to notify our residents quickly,” Boyes said.
Several industries located in St. Clair Township already are using the system to send out notices, Vaillant said.
Township residents will be encouraged to sign up for alerts sent to phones and computers. Information about the system can be found online at www.sarnialambtonalerts.ca.
A spill of diesel fuel from a rail car that reached the St. Clair River in August “emphasized the fact that we needed to do this,” Boyes said.
Article content