No threat from Nordion blaze
Fire was contained, and did not affect radioactive materials on site
A fire that broke out on the roof of the Kanata headquarters of nuclear medicine company Nordion Inc. was contained to an area away from any radioactive materials, according to the company.
Emergency crews rushed to Nordion’s March Road offices just before 10:30 a.m. Thursday after the fire started during repairs to the roof of the company’s Operations building.
Nordion processes nuclear substances (radioisotopes) for medical and industrial applications. It is licensed by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to operate a nuclear substance processing facility.
The CNSC said the fire was a “non-radiological event” that resulted in “no injuries and no impact to worker and public health and safety or the local environment.” It said an inspector was at the site, monitoring the situation.
Tom Burnett, president of medical isotopes at Nordion, said the building was quickly evacuated when the alarm sounded.
“The fire was over at an office space as well as an R&D lab,” said Burnett. “It wasn’t in a production area where we have the medical isotopes.”
Bob Rainboth, public information officer for Ottawa Fire Services, said the fire was contained to the roof area.
“The only damage that we’re aware of right now from the fire is the roof area and the water that was used to put the fire out … some of it did leak into the building proper,” said Rainboth.
Burnett said Nordion is not expecting any interruption in its ability to produce and ship products. The company’s emergency plan accounts for a variety of scenarios, including radioactive leaks, and Burnett said this fire was a matter of executing procedures that the staff practise regularly.
“You never want to have to try them out,” Burnett said, “but it worked very well and went very smoothly.”