It’s been more than a year since Kinder Morgan started working on fire pre-plans for the Burnaby Mountain tank farm, and they have yet to materialize.
The pre-plans outline who would respond to various fire scenarios at the oil storage facility and what, exactly, those people would do to handle the flames.
Deputy fire chief Chris Bowcock told the NOW he’s received some plans and the department is in discussion with the company.
“We’re working towards them. We’re working to review them and identify their emergency response capabilities and what they should be,” he said.
Bowcock could not offer any details on when the plans would be complete.
As previously reported in the NOW, Kinder Morgan and the fire department were in talks about the plans last January.
In the meantime, Kinder Morgan still has its emergency response plan in place, but the fire pre-plans are different. They outline how to respond to specific threats and include details on who does what in response. According to Bowcock, Kinder Morgan’s lack of fire pre-plans means the company is in contravention of city bylaws.
The Burnaby Mountain tank farm has 13 massive storage tanks holding 1.6 million barrels of oil not far from homes and schools.
The question of who will respond in the event of a major fire at the tank farm has been a point of contention between the department and the company, each expecting the other to be the primary responder.
When the NOW asked Kinder Morgan for the latest on the issue, communications staffer Lisa Clement emailed, stating: “There isn’t much of an update in regards to your request about Burnaby Terminal. There has been ongoing engagement with the City of Burnaby Fire (department), and we have plans to meet again. We believe that through our meaningful discussions with Burnaby Fire we have made progress on the format of fire pre-plans for our Burnaby Terminal, and we will continue to work together.”
