Nine months after an explosion at the CP Rail yard in Port Coquitlam, city council publicly addressed the accident by saying it plans to do a better job responding to any future large-scale disasters.
This week, Mayor Greg Moore spoke about the Jan. 22 blast — the first time council has made a public statement about the three-alarm emergency (though the topic was not on Tuesday’s council agenda) — and noted “table-top exercises” with CP Rail will begin next month.
(A request for comment from CP Rail was not returned before The Tri-City News' print deadline.)
Moore said PoCo staff have also reviewed emergency protocols and updated crisis communication plan and procedures as a result of the fire at the yard, one of the biggest rail hubs in western Canada.
And in-depth crisis communications training for the city’s emergency operations centre crew is now underway thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Union of BC Municipalities that was approved in March.
Meanwhile, foam retardant and firefighting gear have been added to the PoCo rail yard and city smoke-eaters have become more familiar with the work site and its foam storage locations, Moore said.
The mayor’s comments come two weeks after The Tri-City News published a story about the communications breakdown between first responder agencies on scene, on the night of Jan. 22, 2018.
According to internal debriefing papers released under a freedom of information request, officials complained about the “confusion” among city staff, the fire department, Coquitlam RCMP, paramedics and CP Rail representatives about what was happening — and who was in charge — when a locomotive collided with a tanker truck carrying ethanol.
No injuries were reported.
The city documents show frustration with Mounties that night about not having a senior member deployed to command.
Since then, Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Mike McLaughlin said, police have trained officers on incident command systems and pledged to have a high-ranking member on site in case of future disasters.
“Moving forward, we continue to work on improving communications with the fire department,” McLaughlin said in a news release issued by the city yesterday (Wednesday). “The improvements we’re making will help clear up confusion about evacuations, facilitate joint media and social media statements, and help translate and confirm the rapidly incoming and ever-changing information.”
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Moore also encouraged PoCo residents and business owners to take the city’s free emergency preparedness courses; you can register at portcoquitlam.ca/ep.
