'We were only minutes away from having to evacuate half of Transcona': Winnipeg firefighters union
Monday's blaze at RM of Springfield asphalt plant was more serious than people know, says Alex Forrest
The president of Winnipeg's firefighters union says the city downplayed the seriousness of Monday's fire at an asphalt plant so as not to scare thousands of people living and working nearby.
"We were only minutes away from having to evacuate half of Transcona," said United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg president Alex Forrest.
"If it wasn't for the work of a lot of firefighters, a lot of agencies, this thing could have been catastrophic for the city of Winnipeg," he said.
The City of Winnipeg said the fire broke out around 10 a.m. Monday at Pounder Emulsions on Day Street between Gunn and Springfield roads in the RM of Springfield. A number of area roads were shut down as fire crews battled the blaze. A school and several Transcona business within 800 metres of the industrial fire were evacuated as plumes of thick, black smoke and a toxic stench were sent into the air. The city also closed a nearby pool and library as a precaution.
That afternoon Christian Schmidt, deputy chief of communications for the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, said the fire did not spread to other buildings in the area.
On Tuesday the city referred questions back to earlier press releases and said "the WFPS had declared the fire under control at 4:30 p.m." Monday, and transferred command of the scene back to the Springfield Fire and Rescue about an hour later.
Springfield Fire, a volunteer fire service, was too busy for an interview Tuesday but told CBC News that crews battled hot spots into the evening and managed to keep the fire from reigniting.
Forrest said firefighters continued to battle hot spots through the night to make sure the fire didn't flare up again.
"It's really unfortunate, instead of the city telling exactly what had happened and some of the stories of heroism of these firefighters, that should be the story, not 'this wasn't that big of a deal and it was out by 4:30,'" said Forrest.
"You talk to any firefighter that was there, it was a big deal," he said.
Forrest said more than 100 firefighters from Winnipeg, the RM of Springfield, the military and the airport worked side by side while breathing in the toxic fumes to battle the blaze. He said the risk of a massive explosion was real, and there was talk of evacuating homes and business that would have impacted nearly 100 thousand people.
"I can tell you we were minutes away from making the decision for evacuating at minimum half of Transcona," said Forrest. "If this fire would have continued it may have even been outside Transcona, it may have got into St. B, it would have got into other areas ... wherever that smoke would go."
Cindy Copeland lives four kilometres from the asphalt plant. She was at work Monday when she heard about the fire and began frantically checking social media to find out if her family was in harm's way.
Copeland said she lost faith in the city and feels they could have provided more information on the situation for worried area residents.
"I didn't know what to do. Like if I should leave work and get my kids, but there was nothing telling us what to do, no direction at all," she said.
The city later sent out a press release saying "provincial officials from Sustainable Development have been monitoring air quality in the area throughout the day. While residents may notice a distinct odour, no detectable concentrations of hazardous gases have been detected."
Copeland doesn't buy it. Neither does Forrest.
"What if there's toxins and we're still breathing them in?" asked Copeland. "We don't know what's still lingering in the air. ...It's very scary."
Copeland and her family are now putting together their own evacuation plan in case something like this were to happen again in the future.
"You always think it'll never happen, and then it happens. So now it's my family and I are thinking what happens if there is something, evacuation, who's going to pick up the kids or what will we do," Copeland said.
Forrest said firefighters who were at the scene were asked to file exposure reports to the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba in case the toxins they breathed in cause them to get sick in the future. He contacted the Winnipeg Police Association Tuesday to suggest officers who were on the scene do the same.
"They were exposed via breathing, they were exposed through absorption and they were also exposed through ingestion," said Forrest.
"If you were in Transcona it wasn't just smoke that you could smell, you could actually feel it, you could see it on your skin it was not very good stuff," he said.
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