A stunning jet-fuel fire at Miami airport has been raised as a possibility here by officials during discussions about a new jet fuel facility approved for Richmond.
Lilian Chau, senior planner at Port Metro Vancouver, said in a 2012 email that members of the public have cited the Miami fire as an "example of concern."
"Health and safety issues regarding the fuel-receiving facility continue to be a major concern for the community, particularly on potential fire outbreaks and explosions," Chau wrote.
The email, addressed to jet-fuel project director Adrian Pollard, was revealed on Monday as a result of a freedom of information search.
"In particular, members of the public have cited the Miami Airport Fuel Tank Farm Fire on March 24, 2011 as an example of concern," she said.
The Miami fire broke out in one of the airport's six storage tanks and burned off one million gallons of propellent in three hours.
Observers said the sky was lit up before the blaze was contained by 100 firefighters. No one was injured. Pollard, project director for the Vancouver airport Fuel Facilities Corp., detailed the company's firefighting plans to Chau in an email.
"Things such as vapour suppression, foam systems, water deluge systems, automatic fire detection, monitoring, security, etc., will be described in more detail through the project permit," he said.
Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington said the Richmond fire department doesn't have the kind of training to deal with an incident of such magnitude. "Richmond would need a serious upgrade to their capacity," she said. "This points to the irresponsibility of the approval process."
The project has received approval from the B.C. government, but has been ordered to come up with an acceptable firefighting plan.
