A series of fires in the CN Rail yard at the end of St. Catharine Street prompted one member of city council to stress enough is enough.
At Tuesday’s (Oct. 15 ) council meeting, Coun. Steve Peters – filling in for Mayor Joe Preston – voiced his concerns about the latest blaze.
“I’m becoming really frustrated with CN and the risk that they are putting our firefighters through, the risk they are putting the neighbours through and, quite honestly, the risk that they are causing to the environment.
“A special foam has to be used to deal with these creosote fires and that leachate has to go someplace.”
He described what it was like in the immediate area of the latest fire in a pile of wooden railway ties.
St. Thomas Fire Chief Dave Gregory indicated to council that Chief Fire Prevention Officer Kim Destun has initiated conversation with CN about the blazes.
Gregory told member of council the latest blaze was time-consuming and labour intensive.
He itemized the elements required to contain the stubborn and smoky fire.
Gregory added about $15,000 in fire retardant foam was required to quell the flames, an expense he will attempt to recover from CN.
He noted, “I haven’t had any direct dealings with them, yet, I have an itemized budget to send them.
“The overtime costs, I don’t know if that is a recoup. But maybe the cost of the foam and the cost of running the backhoe.”
In the process of fighting the flames, a couple of tires on two vehicles required to move items around suffered punctures, likely from rail spikes.
“I am going to send them the bill and see where it goes from there. This is something we haven’t done before.”
Photo courtesy Frank Pelsoczi
