Officials from North West Rubber briefed Brantford city council on Tuesday night about production changes made to avoid another major fire.
“We’ve been around for 55 years. We’ve tried to do things the right way, not cutting corners,” said CEO Leighton Friesen. “Clearly we’ve had a couple of incidents that have happened here in Brantford that we’re not happy about.”
About one third of Ontario’s scrap tire rubber goes through the North West Rubber facility at 321 Henry Street. The firm manufactures mats and rubber flooring products for a variety of uses.
Friesen noted that the company – with operations in British Columbia, Ontario, Texas, and China – had no significant fire loss in its history prior to the June 2019 blaze its 321 Henry Street plant in Brantford.
“We were entering uncharted territory trying to figure out what was the root cause of the 2019 incident,” he said. “We deployed an army of engineers, and we brought in professionals. We learned a whole lot, and we initiated a bunch of changes.”
Mayor Davis asked the CEO how changes implemented would help prevent another fire, after North West Rubber experienced a second major fire in October 2022.
Friesen explained that sensors – that set off alarms and push notifications — have been added at the presses and at several locations in the outdoor storage yard.
All employees have been retrained, and changes have been made to the yard layout, the amount of inventory stored on site, along with the installation of concrete wind barriers.
The CEO added that a mat cooling process will be introduced early in 2024 that will see mats at an ambient temperature when they are moved into the storage yard.
“We’ve done a lot. We’re committed to investing in the things we are told and we believe we need to do, to further reduce risk,” Friesen said. “This has cost us a lot of money, as well as our ability to service our customers.”
Earlier in August, the City of Brantford billed North West Rubber $666,000 for costs related to fighting the October 2022 blaze that saw 41 firefighters work 29 hours to get the blaze under control.
“I want you to know that you have a corporate citizen that cares and is trying to do things the right way,” he told the mayor.
Mayor Davis thanked Friesen for inspiring a greater degree of confidence in council and the community.
“We are very motivated, as you are, to not ever see this happen again,” said the CEO.