Recovery efforts at site of deadly explosion hampered
Four employees' bodies have been located in rubble at Eastway Tank
The winter's biggest snowstorm was expected to further complicate investigation and recovery efforts now underway at the scene of the deadly Eastway Tank, Pump and Meter Ltd. explosion.
The bodies of five Eastway employees have yet to be recovered from the scene, but four have been located in the rubble, a news conference was told Sunday.
One of six victims died in hospital early Friday.
An explosion and fire Thursday collapsed the roof and some of the walls at the Merivale Road complex, which has not yet been stabilized enough to allow for recovery efforts to take place.
“We have been able to locate some human remains, but it has been dangerous to access them,” Regional Coroner Dr. Louise McNaughton-Filion said. “As soon as it's safe to do so, we'll be recovering their remains.”
“The structure itself is very unstable and we have not been able to get inside of it very far as of yet,” said Ottawa Police Insp. Frank D'Aoust.
Contingency plans were being made to protect the site from the snowstorm, which was expected to dump up to 40 cm of snow on the city, starting late Sunday. Large tents were being erected over the blast area, D'Aoust said, and snow removal equipment was being brought in to help clear the site.
“(The storm) will slow down but not hamper our efforts to continue the investigation,” D'Aoust said.
A family-owned business founded in 1968, Eastway Tank builds and repairs fuel and water tanker trucks. The weekend's intense cold, combined with extensive damage at the site, has made it difficult for investigators. Parallel investigations are being conducted by Ottawa police, the Fire Marshal, the regional coroner and the Ministry of Labour.
The Ottawa police are co-ordinating the work of the complex and overlapping investigations.
“We all have one goal: to recover the victims and explain the cause of the incident,” D'Aoust said.
A large portion of the building was “completely obliterated” in the explosion and fire, D'Aoust said, leaving several layers of debris to carefully unpack and inspect.
“The scene of the explosion has been very challenging for all of those involved in this,” Deputy Fire Marshal Tim Beckett told reporters. “The cold, the site conditions, the size of the area and the magnitude of the blast have created challenges that we're continuing to deal with and overcome.”
The Fire Marshal, which is responsible for determining the origin and cause of the fire, has deployed a large team to the site with 10 investigators, a fire protection specialist, a forensics engineer, a supervisor and an operations manager.
The team, Beckett said, has worked to assess the scene and ensure the safety of all those working at the site. Among other things, there's concern about spot fires, and the presence of other flammable materials and dangerous chemicals.
Investigators are now using heavy machinery to carefully remove debris while collecting forensic evidence. They've started from the outside edges of the blast site, Beckett said, and are working their way toward the place where they believe the explosion was triggered.
“The thoroughness of our process means it takes time,” he said. “Our team has been making progress. However, there's still a lot of work to be done.”
It's too early in the process to offer any information about the cause of the explosion, he said. Beckett was also unable to estimate how long the investigation will last.
D'Aoust said he understands the public urgently wants answers.
“We're moving as carefully and quickly as possible,” he said. “We're trying to determine how what should have been a normal day at work went so tragically wrong.”
The names of the dead and missing at Eastway Tank have not been made public by authorities. But the families and friends of some of the blast victims have released information.
Among those presumed dead are Rick Bastien, a mechanic and welder from Luskville, Que.; electrician Etienne Mabiala, 59, a husband and father who moved to Canada from the Republic of Congo; and welder Kayla Ferguson, 26, of Carleton Place.
On Sunday, a friend of Eastway Tank employee Danny Beale revealed he also is among the missing.
Gary Festarini, of Deep River, said he has known Beale since he was a cub in Boy Scouts. Beale grew up in Deep River and worked in Alberta for a surveying company, but returned to Ottawa in recent years because of the economic downturn in the oilpatch. Several years ago, he took a job with Eastway Tank, where he did electrical and instrumentation work, Festarini said.
“He was a kind and generous person,” Festarini said, noting Beale liked to swim and mountain bike, to hunt and fish, and spent many hours on the Ottawa River in search of trophy-sized pike.
Meanwhile, Ferguson's cousin called her “an old soul.”
“She loved outdoors. She loved hunting. She loved fishing, four-wheeling, mudding,” Maria Ferguson said in an interview. “She got into horseback riding about eight years ago, when my first son was born. She was just an all-around amazing person.”
The explosion and fire at Eastway Tank is the city's worst industrial accident since August 1966 when the Heron Road bridge collapsed, killing nine construction workers.
Brad Walker, a truck driver and former employee of Eastway Tank who knew several of the victims, called the incident “impossible to process.” Walker said the workplace featured a tight-knit group of people.
“I've never worked in a place that was so supportive,” said Walker, who left Eastway in 2017.