The investigation into a fallen tower at Sarnia’s Imperial Oil site continues.
The company issued a statement last night saying emergency crews are intermittently spraying water on the tower as a precaution – they say the structure wasn’t in service at the time, and was being prepared for maintenance.
No one was hurt in Tuesday night’s incident.
Here is the full statement, posted on Thursday on the company’s Facebook page:
I would like to update you on the incident involving a processing tower that fell inside of the refinery the evening of April 2. We understand and appreciate that there are many questions around how this happened, and we are committed to working through that in a full investigation. At this time, our efforts remain focused on managing the incident and ensuring the safety of workers and our community. As a continued precautionary measure, Imperial emergency personnel are intermittently spraying water on the tower. The tower was not in service and did not contain hydrocarbon at the time of the incident because it was being prepared for planned maintenance. There were no injuries. We greatly appreciate the support of all of the responders, including those from Sarnia Fire and Rescue, Sarnia Police and the city’s Primary Control Group.
As previously communicated, contractor activities were paused following the incident. We expect the contractor workforce to return to the site Friday, April 5.
We recognize public trust and confidence are earned through performance, open communications and community involvement. We regret this incident and will make every effort to learn from it and apply preventative steps that are identified.
Rohan Davis
Imperial Sarnia Refinery Manager