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August 11, 2008
Massive Explosion in North Toronto, Ontario
Toronto propane depot explosion ( (Go to 1:50 for HUGE explosion)
Firefighter dies battling huge fire at propane depot
A veteran firefighter died trying to extinguish a massive fire at a propane depot in north Toronto early Sunday, a blaze that closed major highways and forced thousands to flee their homes.
Residents said the explosion was terrifying.
Toronto police ordered the evacuation of neighbourhoods within 1.6 kilometres of Sunrise Propane. Thousands of people living between Keele Street, Dufferin Street, Sheppard Avenue and Wilson Avenue were ordered to leave their homes.
"My whole house shook. The front door came off and I saw fire," said Shelby Degan, who lives less than a block away from the depot.
"Next thing you know, I've got glass in my head and I'm running down the road."
O'Hallarn said the explosion sent large pieces of metal — likely from tanks that exploded — flying into nearby streets. Homes were damaged, windows shattered and doors were ripped from their hinges. About 200 firefighters battled intense heat to fight spot fires that continued to burn into Sunday evening.
The cause of the fire was still unknown. The area was still too unstable for Ontario Fire Marshal's Office investigators to enter the site and begin their probe.
Mayor David Miller, on vacation in Vancouver, was rushing back to Toronto to help co-ordinate the relief efforts. In a telephone news conference Sunday afternoon, he said his top priority is to ensure the area is made safe.
A no-fly zone was ordered over the area, as emergency workers feared that propane tankers parked on the site might spark further explosions, although those fears were diminishing by noon.
Natural gas and hydro were shut off to the area as a precaution.
The first explosion, which could be heard seven kilometres away, shook nearby homes and buildings, waking residents.
Robert Halman, who lives on Murray Road, said his ceiling crashed on top of him, and the doors and windows of his home blew out. Flames were everywhere, with fireballs exploding into the sky.
He escaped, but his shirt caught fire, burning his back. His forehead was covered in blood from the debris that hit him.
"I'm lucky that I got out of there alive," he said, scratches visible on his forehead.
ARTICLE SNIPPET:
“Police said the company stores and distributes a number of highly flammable welding supplies and gases such as acetylene, argon, nitrogen, propane and oxygen which police say is “highly explosive.”
The cause of the explosion has not been determined.”
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Wild Thing's comment........
The lack of media coverage of this so far is astonishing. It is so good that few were hurt and killed in this horrible explosion.
Posted by Wild Thing at August 11, 2008 01:45 AM
Comments
We had a massive fire at a propane distributor in Dallas two years ago. Luckily the injuries were few and minor. It took ours for all the tanks to blow up. Very spectacular and the grounds were leveled.
Posted by: TomR at August 11, 2008 11:09 AM
Been involved in few myself, spent 19 years in oil and gas, it can get ugly in a heartbeat and run if you want you'll only die tired. We sure had some fatalities too. I've lost friends and coworkers all around the world and in the US.
1976, A High pressure gas well blew out, thank G'd it didn't ignite, Red Adair and Boot's and Coot's spent over a week stopping the blowout by drilling alongside and plugging that well. 1985, 1500 ft. West of that event over 50000 gallons of Propane went up, dumped during a plant emergency from our Propane manufacturing process, the heat was most uncomfortable a quarter mile away, it melted down the vertical flare and the flare pit and glassed over the gravel on the bottom, pickups parked 1000 ft away had paint burned off from the reflected heat. 1986, 1200 gallons of hot oil exploded inside the Turbine Compressor room of the Miscible injectant Compressor, both 600 gal oil tanks went from square to round instantly, the walls were blown off, estimated fireball height , over 500 ft. 1987 after ignoring high level alarms all night during a plant startup the NGL levels reached the very top of the knockout drum, the vapor vents couldn't handle the liquids and the vessel blew, due to all the safety devices being bypassed, $50 million was admitted to as the loss of property, one worker was blown 50 ft through the air, no clothes remained on him and he was 'hairless', lots of pain from the burns. None of these resulted in fatalities only injuries, the bad actor in all those fires and explosions was what is known as a BLEVE, " boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion". That is what happened in Toronto. It doesn't have to be boiling either, at -50 yours truly got his ass blown some 30 feet from an explosion of LNG that ignited at the opening of a door. Like Tom said, it usually has to burn itself out. Pray for them.
Posted by: Jack at August 11, 2008 03:53 PM
Tom, wow that is scary, and to see this one and how big that explosion was. the one you are talking about must have been even bigger.
Posted by: Wild Thing at August 11, 2008 08:36 PM
Jack thank you for sharing about your experiences like that. My first reaction was it might be terrorists or something.
Thank you so much for this information it sure is interesting too, so many things a person has no knowledge of with things like this. People that work with this kind of thing I sure hope they are appreciated, it reminds me of that movie about the guy that drove that truck with explosives in it. The original was made in France and it was a sit on the edge of your seat kind of movie.
Posted by: Wild Thing at August 11, 2008 08:43 PM
