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Sooke brings haz-mat equipment to Malahat spill

While Sooke Fire Resuce personnel were involved with the April 15-17 Vancouver Island Emergency Preparedness conference a call came in of a crashed Columbia Fuels tanker truck on the Trans Canada Highway near Goldstream Park on Saturday evening. Langford Fire Rescue was first on the scene, followed by Sooke Fire Rescue, who showed up with their haz-mat trailer.

Chief Steve Sorensen briefed the District of Sooke’s Committee of the Whole at its April 18 meeting.

“It started out with 60,000 litres, approximately 50 per cent of the cargo was spilled, almost all of it on initial impact.”

The fuel was spilled into the Goldstream River and the highway was closed as a result.

Sorensen said his department was happy to respond as part of a mutual aid agreement, as outside help would certainly be appreciated if the tables were turned.

On the topic of the recently completed first function at the new Prestige Hotel and Conference Centre, Sorensen was most positive in his summary to C.O.W.

“First and foremost I have to thank Deputy Chief (Rick) McLeod who attended I don’t know how many meetings on his own time to help organize this thing. There were 253 delegates registered for the conference.

“The trade show on Friday evening was attended by somewhere between 350 and 400 people. Quite a few local people came as well. We had six members of the Sooke ESS team attend.”