explosion firegeezer on 12 Aug 2008 04:14 pm
Toronto Explosion - Day 3
Globe and Mail image
Coroner’s officials are on the scene of the Sunrise Propane devastation investigating the body found early this morning at the site. While the fatality hasn’t been identified yet, it is believed to be that of a Sunrise employee who has been missing since the blast and fire destroyed the entire complex.
While most of the 12,000 evacuees have been allowed to return home, about 100 houses are still uninhabitable.
Mayor David Miller held a news conference this morning and he stated that he is taking immediate measures to see that the zoning laws are changed to allow the city to prohibit such dangerous occupancies to build in residential areas.
Sunrise built their plant just four years ago taking advantage of outdated zoning regulations that were in force before Toronto annexed the North York community several years ago. The final report on the explosion won’t be ready for several months, Miller said.
At last count, six people were transported to hospitals, 18 more were treated at an emergency clinic and 40 were treated on the scene by FD paramedics. The only fatalities known so far are the one found this morning and one firefighter, District Chief Robert Leek who collapsed and died at the fire scene Sunday morning.
CTV has a 13-minute raw video of the incident taken after daylight from a helicopter HERE.
CTV
It is coming out that anytime the city tried to upgrade the zoning regulations, the compressed gas lobbying groups would take them to court and have them overturned because they were in conflict with Provincial law. The provincial legislature never permitted the cities to protect themselves from dangerous occupancies.
The Globe and Mail has a background article on how the zoning mess came about and why it hasn’t been updated HERE.
