Propane Explosion in Toronto -

Toronto will review all industrial areas that could potentially pose a threat to residential neighbourhoods.

The decision comes a day after a massive explosion and fire at a propane plant in the city's northwest.

On Monday, Toronto Mayor David Miller told CBC News he wants to know if similar risks exist elsewhere in the city and whether zoning bylaws need to be changed to ensure public safety.

"Many of them [bylaws] are many years out of date," Miller said in a telephone interview from his office.

"Zoning, in this example, for example, has probably been there for 30 or 40 years and we need to determine if we can put distancing requirements in if there are other examples of facilities this close to residential neighbourhoods."

The propane depot that exploded over the weekend was regulated and authorized by a provincial agency and complied with existing zoning laws. But Miller said he has heard concerns about safety issues at the plant.

"The people told me they'd seen people smoking at the site. They'd told me that they'd seen flames there. And they told me that they'd seen driving that was irresponsible and a danger. I don't know if any of those, of course, are true or isolated incidents, but it's enough to raise a concern," he said.

Toronto's acting deputy mayor Shelley Carroll said propane experts and the Ontario Fire Marshal are reviewing past inspections of Sunrise Propane Industrial Gases in an effort to determine the cause of the early Sunday explosions.

The series of blasts that started about 3:50 a.m. resulted in the death of a veteran firefighter and forced about 10,000 residents to flee their homes as a fireball illuminated the sky above them.

Bob Leek, 55, Toronto Fire Services district chief of emergency planning, was found unresponsive at the scene and was pronounced dead at hospital, authorities said. It is unclear how Leek died and cause of death is still to be determined.

Crews continued to search on Monday for a Sunrise Propane employee who has been missing since the explosions. More than a dozen residents were also injured when their homes were damaged.

 

Basically a propane tank exploded in a citizen inhabited area, killed a lot of people and leveled a lot of homes. When they showed it on the news, it looked like a war zone.

I think just two deaths, which of course is two too many.

I wonder where in Toronto? I used to live in Downsview.

I wonder if that's the reason behind the heavy chemtrailing here tonight, they do that whenever they suspect "terroists" are out there maybe, most likely so they can pick them up easier on survielle equiptment. Sorry to hear about the two deaths though. I hope it wasn't caused by someone that set it to give the propane regulations an good look over to where it's next to impossble to get Propane for this winter.

It is terrible, I was so shocked when I read this. I don't think it was because of terroism but what I'm wondering is, why was there a propane plant so close to human population.

 From what I read the 401 and the 400 were closed for several hours, which probably caused a lot of delays in the USA as well.

 Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes following an explosion at a propane gas plant in the north of the Canadian city of Toronto. 

 

I'm thankful that my family in Toront doesn't live in the north end.