Propane Depot Fire Lights Up Toronto Skyline with Massive Mushroom Cloud
Details are sketchy at this point but an absolutely massive fire at Sunrise Propane near Keele & Wilson is filling the city skies with smoke, ash and just in the past hour, a massive mushroom cloud explosion that rocked the socks off of balcony observers -- see the youtube video footage below and live updates below.
Watch for the explosion at 1:50:
Updates
6:50AM - 680 News is reporting that they said there are trains containing chemicals nearby but apparently, no one is sure what kind of chemicals we're talking about.
7:00AM - Another incredible video of the explosion:
7:03AM - Word from various locals and 680AM say that buildings have had their windows and doors blown out in the vicinity. Thankfully, the fire appears to be calming down right now. Local residents have been evacuated by bus and brought over to Yorkdale Mall. If you live remotely nearby, close up those windows and balcony doors.
7:16AM - Police are closing off the 401 between highway 400 and the 404. Local residents have been evacuated by bus over to Yorkdale Mall. Avoid the area, and if you're remotely nearby, close those windows and balcony doors.
7:21AM - The blogTO Flickr Pool is filling with reader photos of the blaze.
7:40AM - Allen Road off limits as well now.
8:00AM - Wilson and Sheppard road closures are expanding. Just avoid the area altogether, folks. The fire is still burning strong as hundreds of firefighters are on the scene working.
680 News is reporting that houses in the area have collapsed and that apparently people were injured earlier -- possibly firefighters. Press conference to come.
8:20AM - All streets closed Bathurst to Jane & Steeles to Lawrence. People are having to go far out go far out of their way to get around so be ware of confused commuters.
8:50AM - Press conference on now...
Fire department officials say vehicles in the area on fire and homes have been damaged which is why they've evacuated 1.6kms. Rail car tanks containing propane are on site and could blow, so the main effort is to cool tanks with water so that they stay stable and don't blow due to heat pressure.
It's also possible a truck with driver was filling up at the time of the original blast. No major injuries reported so far. Firefighters are being cautious while trying to cool the tanks. There is no estimate on when this could be under control.
Furthermore, Toronto Police officials are instructing everyone in the affected 1.6km area to leave. No one is allowed to come in and get anyone. Drive yourself or use the TTC buses that are shuttling people to safety. Remember to take meds and anything else you'll need for the remainder of the day.
This is also a no-fly zone for any kind of aircraft.
9:30AM - TTC Subway service on the Unversity line is only going as far as Yorkdale Station Lawrence West Stn.
2:30PM - Yorkdale Mall is now being evacuated.
2:35PM - A firefighter has been rushed to the hospital with no vital signs. Police have also set up a hotline for people looking to find out info about their friends/relatives who live in the affected area: 416-736-5185
Buses being re-routed are the 107 Keele North, 84 Sheppard, 96 Wilson, 29 Dufferin, 165 Weston and 108 Downsview.
3:07PM - Food and shelter is now being provided at York University for evacuated people. TTC is shuttling people in and around, pets are being reunited with owners and phones lines have been provided, so if you are waiting to hear from someone in the area, be patient.
3:10PM - Mayor Miller, who is out of town right now, will be doing a teleconference at 3:30PM.
3:40PM - The conference with Mayor Miller is underway but no new information coming out of that.
4:20PM - The fire department has confirmed that a 25-year veteran firefighter - found earlier without vital signs - has died.
8:15PM - The 401 has been mostly re-opened and residents have been given the OK to begin returning to their homes. Window repair companies are surely stocking up and hopefully we'll see what on earth 'caused all this destruction when investigations continue this week.
8:35PM - Rest in peace, firefighter Bob Leek.
Another video sent to us by a reader. (Thanks Ryan!)
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Headline photo by Scotteh in the blogTO Flickr pool. 2nd pool photo contributed by Photojunkie.
Comments (36)
Wow, that's intense. Rannie's got another great video of it all here: http://www.vimeo.com/1501437
Even at Yonge and Carlton, I could hear and feel it.
It was not quite like a thunderclap but more like a low boom.
The Google map distance measuring shows almost 6 3/4 miles from there to here. That's a long way for a shock wave to dissipate and yet be felt.
During the War of 1812, when the magazine at Fort York blew up, the shock wave could be heard and felt all the way up at
Montgomery's Tavern on Yonge just north of present-day Eglintonp-- a distance of just under 5 miles.
I was awoken to this, but thought it might be just loud thunder claps, since many of yesterday's thunder was loud enough to shake my building. I then realized something big was going down when I saw a big pillar of black smoke in the sky, and scores of ambulance, police, and fire trucks' sirens in the distance.
It seems to be somewhat under control, as I write this, good thing today's rain will help the firemen put it out.
Wow. It did wake me up at Yonge and Eglinton. Knew it sounded weird for thunder, but didn't know what else it would be Now I do. Good job with the updates, Tanja!
"weird thunder" is a good description of what we thought too. Finally i got up and looked out the window, which i was startled to find the sky was practically clear. I live in an apartment that faces east so I couldn't see anything, but could tell the sound seemed to be north-west. I went up to the roof of our building to take a look... it was quite startling to say the least to see a blaze that size off in the distance, constantly booming for over an hour... I put an entry in our family weblog about it as I couldn't find any other site with info at that time. (Click my name below if you're interested in another account of the event...)
Friend of mine works at Flight Safety, which is right next door to the building where the explosion happened. He is on call to return to the area... I'll letcha know when they get called in to assess the damage.
I live on Keele all the way down at Bloor and I heard this. At first the sound was a low rumble, like thunder or I thought maybe even an animal rummaging through the bushes, and then all of a sudden I heard the "bomb" sound. It LITERALLY shook my house. The windows were rattling and everything. I was talking to a friend on the phone who didn't believe me when I said I heard a bomb sound. Thanks for posting these updates!
I heard this at Queen and Dufferin, no lie. Thought it was more thunder, but didn't sound right. Incredible.
The big blast around 3:50AM caused my attic apartment at Bloor and Spadina to sway, likely because of the shock wave. I thought at first we were having an earthquake, or that there had been a huge crash in the TTC between DuPont and Spadina stations.
Jesus, I live roughly at Dundas and Keele and had no idea that anything like this was going on. I even was halfway through the article before it dawned on me that this was in my area rather than some other part of the GTA. I guess I really am a heavy sleeper.
I live 2 intersections away. It felt like a bomb went off. The lighbulbs in the street lamps in my entire street all shattered and car alarms went off.
It's hard to wrap my head around how major this blast was. Considering how many of us felt it...I could hear and feel this all the way at Dundas and Bathurst...just mindboggling.
The TTC is back up and running but they just announced they're evacuating Yorkdale Mall.
We had the house windows wide open last night, and it woke me up at Queen & Don Valley. 18.2km, holy cow.
Death reported along with injuries:
http://www.hotornotgossip.com/blog/2008/08/breaking-news-t.html
I'm down at Royal York and Lakeshore, I was building a computer in my dining room when I thought I heard thunder, but saw no lightning and it wasn't raining.. went back to it, then read about the explosion and saw the videos.. crazy!
I was woken up the initial blasts that went on for about 30 to 40 min's and then that big one happened and i saw a bright flash followed by a rush of air and my apartment shaking, I'm at Bathurst and Eglinton, It sounded like artillery shells being fired and then a big bomb going off! Scared the shit out of me!
In one of the videos floating around you can actually see the shockwave blast the flames outwards - that's probably what most of you felt in describing your building shaking, swaying, or feeling like a bomb went off.
What disgusted me was that city councillor Shelley Carroll, "acting Deputy Mayor" on tv blamed this on the homeowners who bought homes "that encroached on an industrial area".
While the industrial area was there first with WWII industries and later with places like the Tesky Construction cement loading location, those homes have been there for probably 5 decades while Sunrise Propane maybe one decade.
Why does the city permit dangerous stuff like this to be ADDED to a location right across the street from a residential area?
And for Councillor Carroll to blame the residents is nothing short of absolutely disgusting.
It's no wonder so many people have lost any respect for politicians.
Mayor Miller is too busy protecting us from tasty street food to worry about propane depots located across the street from neighbourhoods.
I live 1 block from the site and was not allowed to return up until 12am tonight, and was stopped and searched trying to sneak in lol. Luckily the officers I encountered were nice enough to give me a ride back to a friends place. I'm not sure who is the blame for this, the media or the cops. But this has been a nightmare weekend to say the least.
I was at my mom's who lives right by Yorkdale Mall. The blasts were so intense, it blew the windows out of shops all the way to Dufferin & Wilson/Yorkdale area. Was def. a scary way to wake up, I can only imagine how scared the people around Keele & Wilson must've felt.
What I found disturbing was the media's lack of coverage on the event, I honestly thought a bomb went off - checked all the TV & news websites, cbc, ctv, toronto star, cp24, etc, etc NO ONE had any coverage of the event even an hour after the big explosion. Are they all sleeping? That's pretty scary, in the event of an event bigger situation. Wake up media, this is why you exist.
No news - err yeah. 3:50AM on a Sunday morning is the least covered time of the week. It doesn't help that so many national reporters are over in Beijing and that anyone left was trying to book a flight to Georgia.
Sure there are some local people, but many of them have been drafted to cover holes left in national coverage while everyone else is watching the Olympics. Is anyone here ever normally in any state that they can report to work on 10 minutes notice at 4AM Sunday? Most of us would have problems hitting 4PM if we weren't planning on working.
Probably the best video footage of the explosion is this little 36-second clip. I can almost feel the heat from the blast at 0:08.
I live about 1KM directly west of the site on Keele Street.
I was awakened at ~4:00 a.m. by the "weird thunder" noise.
Then it happened 2 or 3 times in a row and I thought at
first that someone was slamming a door. When I fully awoke I could feel the building shaking on each explosion, there must have been about 10-20 in a row or more every few seconds.
Went to my window which faces east and saw the massive fire, looked to be about 500-600 feet wide !
I quickly dressed and went outside. I walked down to Keele, Wilson, all along the street (which is lined with apartment buildings), people were standing outside watching the fire.
Mike
Hey Hey;
You must work for the media. Sorry, that's no excuse, unfortunately emergencies don't occur acording to what works best for news makers schedules. Take one reporter off Britney Spears' vajaja and put them on overnight news duty. Even one person to update a ticker - isn't that what CP24 is supposed to be for? News plays a crucial role during these times. Huge failure on the part of Toronto media.
Al is a liar.
Shelley Carroll never said this and never would.
She is the best councillor on City Council and should Mayor David Miller decide not to run again she would be the best person to replace him.
She has done so much for her community.
I am sure this was something written under an alias by one of the right wing councillors probably Ford, Holyday or Minnan-Wong.
"Why does the city permit dangerous stuff like this to be ADDED to a location right across the street from a residential area?"
Because hundreds of thousands of people in the GTA want, buy, and use propane? A better question is why everyone pretends they aren't consumers of industrial products whenever said products bite them in the ass.
All though I was in Brantford at the time of this, my cousin lives in the GTA and we were fearful of her as we don't quite know exactly were she lives. It turns out that she's on the south side of the GTA but still, she told us of the stories her husband heard at work.
My point is that this is not just a problem in Toronto. Anywhere you go, you can find this. Brantford used to have a gas station in smack middle, triangle piece of land, just at the corner of one of the busiest four-lanes both-way intersections & train track that crosses. If we were to have had that explosion there, we would have lost a lot more & been worse with the two high-rise appartment buildings within a four block radius. The gas station is long gone and so are the tanks but still. In the town were I attend college, there are TWO gas stations directly across the street from each other and both have propane filling stations AND they are smack-dab in the centre of downtown. If that happens here, we pretty much loose ALL of the downtown as it all is about a 5-city-block radius. It's like they designed the city around the stations!
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