The visual was as shocking as it was potentially tragic.
Jagged masses of wood and twisted pieces of metal strewn across and beyond the Stittco Energy Ltd property. Firefighters working their way through rubble, surely mindful of the particularly hazardous environment in which they found themselves. Onlookers gazing on from blocks away in disbelief.
The Wednesday morning explosion at Stittco, our region’s long-time propane supplier, was a powerful reminder that for all of the safeguards government and industry have put into place, sudden catastrophes can and will still occur.
As a journalist and photographer, I was at the scene less than an hour after the explosion, which shook homes, leveled the Stittco mechanical shop and sent one man to hospital.
It wasn’t until a few hours later, while interviewing Dennis Bouteiller, owner of the nearby Gas Bar, that the magnitude of what happened sunk in for me.
How easy it would have been for someone – perhaps several someones – to have been driving or walking past Stittco at the instant of the explosion.
How easy of a target those people would have been for the blast-scattered remnants of the shop.
And how easily a major fire could have spread to another propane tank on site, and from there… well, none of us wants to think about that.
If there can be one silver lining in an episode as terrifying as this, it is, obviously, that the lone individual who was hurt escaped with what officials called non-life-threatening injuries.
“We’re all thankful that this doesn’t appear that it’s a loss-of-life situation and that this didn’t wind up having more consequences than it did,” Mark Kolt, chief administrative officer for the City of Flin Flon, told me. He spoke for many.
If there can be another silver lining, it is that investigators can now determine what went wrong – and ensure it never happens again.
Kolt, who is also the city’s emergency coordinator, said early information he received suggested an undetected gas leak was at play, but he was not in a position to obtain further confirmation.
Stittco could not verify that statement but said it was working cooperatively with investigators to determine what occurred.
Regardless of the specific cause, the blast will – and indeed already has – reignited long-standing concerns in the community over the location of Stittco.
For years, some residents have questioned the prudence of placing a major propane supplier in the heart of the city, within eyeshot of multiple neighbourhoods and businesses.
Stittco’s location concerns are not a criticism of the company, but of government policies that allowed such a set-up. In light of what happened Wednesday morning, regulators are certain to face pressure to revisit those policies.
The time for such analysis will come in due course. For now, all Flin Flon area residents can be thankful for the miracle of the explosion’s limited havoc.
Local Angle is published on Fridays.
