'AIM is a black eye on our community,' says Saint John mayor
Port, province to create task force to investigate last week's fire at waterfront scrapyard
Saint John Mayor Donna Reardon says "enough is enough."
She said American Iron and Metal will be getting a bill from the city for firefighting services for last week's blaze at the company's west side metal recycling plant.
The mayor isn't sure the city has ever done that before, "but this one's definitely going out."
Reardon said it will cover all of the personnel and equipment tied up for two full days in battling the fire that started in the dockside recycling plant early Thursday morning and sent hazardous smoke across the city.
"That's on port property. Our fire department is for our own property, for our municipality," she said.
"No, it's only reasonable for us to send a bill for this."
Reardon said the fire diverted city officials from trying to get ready for Hurricane Lee, which was eventually downgraded to a post-tropical storm by the time it reached the Fundy coast.
But when the fire raged on Thursday and into Friday, the city was preparing for a hurricane-force storm and needed all hands on deck, rather than dealing with a fire on federal land, said Reardon on Information Morning Saint John on Monday morning.
Later Monday, the New Brunswick government issued a statement saying the province and Port Saint John will create a joint task force to investigate what happened at AIM.
During its 12 years next to Saint John Harbour, AIM has also been the scene of explosions and two workplace deaths.
"Port Saint John never envisioned the series of explosions, fires, accidents and tragic deaths that have occurred," Craig Bell Estabrooks, the Port Saint John CEO, is quoted as saying in the statement. "We are steadfast in our commitment to the health and safety of our community."
The only activity now allowed at the yard is emergency work to stabilize the site after the fire. All other operations are suspended until an investigation into the fire is done, Premier Blaine Higgs said.
Full effects unknown
Reardon said an operation such as AIM should never have been allowed to start so close to residential neighbourhoods and adjacent to a harbour that's so important to the tourism industry.
Later Monday morning, Reardon issued a written statement saying, "The land on which AIM operates is not city land, nor do we have any jurisdiction over regulating AIM operations, yet our residents and businesses are the ones suffering the consequences — the full severity of which we may only learn in months and years to come."
Reardon said AIM's location is "unacceptable and incompatible with our residential communities on both sides of the harbour, our tourism economy from the cruise industry, and our work to attract private investment to beautify our waterfront and create housing for our growing population."
She called AIM "a black eye on our community."
AIM was asked — by phone and email — for an interview, but no one had responded by publication time.
Reardon said the premier's promise of a thorough investigation with clear deadlines, including the first report within 24 hours of the incident, is "music to my ears."
CBC has asked the Environment Department for a copy of that report, but has not received a response to the request.
What was in the water?
Reardon said the health, social and economic impacts of the fire are likely to be felt for years — and may not be fully understood until years down the road.
"I don't know what was happening over there, how it was contained, but just imagine the wind mixing all of that particulate up."
She also worries about what chemicals may have been in the run-off as fire crews poured water on the fire.
Reardon believes the site likely has a catch basin of some sort, since "AIM has historically misted that pile of rubble to keep the dirt and the dust down so that I know there is a water collection component.
"But I mean, we were dumping millions of gallons of water on that and then you had a storm with torrential rains that was falling on it. So I don't know how much has been captured with all of that."
She said the tides would have washed all of that material out to sea and inland up the St. John River as they came and went.
"So there's all kinds of consequences to a major, major incident like that … and we may not even have thought of all of the consequences yet."
More than 2 million litres of water used
Saint John Fire Chief Kevin Clifford said firefighters poured water on the fire constantly for about 40 hours straight. He estimates that adds up to more than two million litres of water before crews finally pulled out at about 8 p.m. on Friday.
Clifford said a "chemical cocktail" would have been given off during the fire — into the air and into the water used to douse the flames. He said the list would include benzene, propane, propene, styrene, heptane, and toluene — basically anything that a car may have had in it before it was disposed of.
He said that cocktail of toxins eventually gets "captured by the water and ends up being part of the outflow of the water."
It also becomes part of the concern for the safety of firefighters.
Clifford said all of the equipment, including the hoses and the gear that firefighters wore during the fire, has to be thoroughly cleaned after being used.
"We try to get rid of as many of the toxins and chemicals as possible because those things will erode [and] contribute to the lifespan of those assets."
Firefighters, for example, wear three layers of gear and all three layers have to be taken apart and put into an industrial washing machine and dryer, "so that when the firefighters return to duty, they end up getting clean gear back."
Clifford said there will be an "after-action review" in the coming weeks to see if there are lessons that can be learned.
"I don't have any major items that I think we need to correct, but I do think we need to put the people that were at the incident in a room and have a discussion on what we learned and what we might be able to do better."
Some economic impacts were immediate
Reardon said there were also economic impacts to local businesses who had to shut down because of the fire.
The Plank restaurant, overlooking the Reversing Falls, was one of them.
Pat Vaughan, one of the owners, said his restaurant had $11,000 worth of sales the day before the fire and $1,100 on the day of the fire.
Public health officials issued a shelter-in-place advisory while the fire raged, due to the poor air quality, so few people were out spending money at local businesses that day.
'The final straw'
Reardon said she's looking to the provincial and federal governments to hold AIM accountable. The operation sits on federal land, while the province issues the licence to operate.
"What we have though is a voice," said Reardon.
And she plans to be heard.
"I feel like this is the final straw."
CBC requested an interview with Environment Minister Gary Crossman, but he has not yet been made available.
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With files from Information Morning Saint John