The Montreal Fire Department (SIM) is concerned about the risk of fire at the sorting centre whose permit has just been revoked by Quebec. Firefighters say they have prepared an intervention plan in case a fire breaks out in this area located near the refineries.
“We are concerned about the risks associated with the current situation,” agrees the head of the communications division at SIM, Guy Lapointe.
Earlier Friday, The Press had reported that the Ministry of the Environment had revoked the authorization that allowed Service 3R Valorisation to operate a sorting center in Montreal East for years. Quebec has thus officially prohibited the company from operating a construction or demolition debris sorting center in the province because of repeated environmental failures over the years.
However, the land still looks like a dump. Mountains of waste – reaching 10 metres in height in places – now cover the entire 10,000 m2 site.2located a stone’s throw from a Suncor refinery.
Without going into detail about his actions, which the SIM is keeping secret for security reasons, Mr. Lapointe states that “while waiting for the storage to return to compliance, measures have been taken to mitigate the risks, by developing an intervention plan aimed at containing a possible fire.”
In recent years, fires had already broken out in the piles of waste at the sorting center and had forced the intervention of Urgence-Environnement teams. On August 30, 2020, for example, a fire started in construction waste. The firefighters then brought the flames under control, but the intervention resulted in a polluting flow.
At the Eastern Montreal Industrial Association (AIEM), CEO Dimitri Tsingakis also states that “the presence of combustible material represents an additional risk for neighbouring businesses.”
“We have already expressed this concern to the authorities,” he maintains, assuring that all members of the association “have an emergency measures plan in order to be able to react to potential situations that could arise on their respective sites.”
The Ministry of Public Safety notes that “fire risk management is primarily the responsibility of the company,” which must “ensure that it complies with the standards in force associated with fire risk.” “Major fire risks are known to the authorities and measures are put in place to prevent them or reduce their consequences,” the government assures, however.
Simple measures
According to Danielle Pilette, a specialist in environmental responsibility and municipal affairs at UQAM, there are several simple measures to protect industrial sectors from fires. And they must be multiplied as much as possible.
“I hope it’s already in their contingency plan, but we can mitigate the risks by requiring separation measures for outdoor storage. This could be, for example, building a ditch or spraying the debris with certain products that make it fireproof,” she explains.
In his eyes, too many companies and even municipalities are still not taking responsibility in this area in Quebec. “The safety reflex is not yet acquired everywhere, that’s clear. We are not careful enough,” says M.me Pilette.
She explains the situation in particular by the fact that “the treatment of residual materials comes with a significant challenge, that is to say that we do not have much of a market in Quebec.” “Let’s say that this does not encourage companies that treat these materials to behave well, since they themselves, in the end, are not entirely certain of having outlets,” concludes the expert.
With Ulysse Bergeron, The Press